


Triskelea Side stories.

by Mikaiyawa



Series: Triskela [2]
Category: 69 Eyes, Cinema Bizarre, Lovex, Negative - Fandom, Panik, Tokio Hotel
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Historical, Crossover, F/F, F/M, M/M, Vikings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-31
Updated: 2011-10-11
Packaged: 2017-10-23 07:35:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 19
Words: 36,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/247788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mikaiyawa/pseuds/Mikaiyawa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>side stories for my Triskelea fic</p><p>at the moment (August 31, 2011) they are NOT in chronological order.  That will get fixed once all the bits are loaded.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Uphevals

**Author's Note:**

> a fix it for part of Triskalea.. and proof that not everything is perfect in the Viking world...

Linke blinked and looked up from where he'd been idly strumming his kantele. He'd heard the fight start, half the Holding had heard it start, but like everyone else he'd believed that in a fight between Called pairmates it was best to just stay out of it and let them settle things themselves.

This though, this implied things were rather worse than a usual bond mate argument.

Amie had stormed out of the longhouse in tears and was headed not up into the fields and meadows above the Holding, but right toward the sea.

Gustav reacted faster than he did, the blond had pounced Amie before she reached the waters edge and herded her over to where Linke sat on stool buy a pile of nets.

She was grey faced and her eyes looked all but dead as she sobbed.

“  
But how could he, _how could he_?”

Gustav blinked as Linke set his kantele aside and reached for her.

“  
How could he what? Amie? What has Lauri done.”

“  
He, he had children and **_left_** them.”

Linke blinked and shared a puzzled look with Gustav. They hadn't been listening closely to the fight, it wasn't their business so they were both at a bit of a loss. And the only children Linke knew about that called Lauri... oh. That was it.

“  
The children at Verlong's Holding?”

She sobbed and nodded, and in spite of it being more than a bit rude Linke couldn't stop the snort.

“  
But everyone knows they aren't his.”

That had Amie looking at him like he'd lost his mind.

“  
Bu, but he _says_ they are his.”

Linke grimaced and quietly cursed Verlong for being a narrow minded and overly conservative bastard.

“  
Verlong is a bit of a bastard, he's a follower of the older ways where if a woman who was not of the people was found on the shore she was the property of the man who found her.” He held his hand up as Amie protested. “I agree it's stupid, but it'll make sense in a minute. He found two shipwreck survivors and took them as thralls, until he found out they were pregnant and were far enough along that there was no way they were the get of any of his men. So he decided to give them in sacrifice to the Smithy god.”

Amie blanched in horror. She'd been in the Holding long enough to know that criminals given to the god Hurr were burned alive.

Lauri and Atti were there to help tend to Lauri's brother after he was gored by an elk. And Lauri had been asked to be the carrier in a surrogacy spell for his brother. He was already sick and in a panic about his brothers wife potentially being given to the sea by the old bastard for not bearing her husbands child. Verlong was going to pitch her for not having a child yet when they'd been wed less than a year and he was planning on doing it before Eerro had properly passed to Othar's Hall if he was going to. Lauri was violently sick from the spell, sickened worse over having to sleep with his brothers wife to help keep her alive so Eerro would have a _reason_ to live. And he snapped. He'd been violently sick after transferring his brothers seed into his wife and snapped.”

Gustav spoke up.

“  
I was there, he looked like he'd been dragged through Hella face down from being so ill. But he stood up at the central fire that night before Verlong could announce what he was going to do to those poor girls and declared to the whole Holding that their children were his and any man contesting it would have a fight on his hands.”

Linke nodded as Amie's eyes went round.

“  
His ravens set up a racket and suddenly we realize there are dozens up on dozens of Othar's birds around the fire and they all spread their wings and set up a racket. Verlong was scared white at the idea of going against Othar's desires. So when both girls got 'stolen' that night he didn't say a word or demand so much as a sliver of copper for their collars. Everyone knows those two boys aren't his, but they are his gift children and since no one knows who their blood fathers are, or if they are even alive Lauri is 'father' to them But Ullie and Eicca are 'Isa' just like Eerro is blood father to little Seppo.” Linke shrugged, but was inwardly relieved to see color coming back into her face.

“  
So, they aren't his? He didn't have them and walk away?” Amie hiccupped and sniffled a little.

“  
They aren't his, he just did what he had to to make sure they didn't go to Othar's Hall for no reason. We have few enough little ones, to throw two away just because they weren't of the Holding is idiotic.”

Gustav snorted rudely.

“  
The only reason Torstig's got a little girl up in the Laps is because her mother's clan wouldn't let him _leave_ until he'd left a girl pregnant. If he'd have tried they'd have given him to one of their lake gods.” Gustav shook his head in annoyance at the idea, even if he'd toyed with the idea of drowning the man more than once. “And given his druther's he'd have brought the girl home to his mother, not left her up there once he knew she was carrying his get. But they won't let her go. Girls are valuable, more than gold up there. He never shows it, but he hates it. But if he goes back to try and get her they'll force him to breed another one, because he's a skald. It's pretty commonly known Lauri hadn't lain with a woman after he'd sat surrogate for his brother until he came back from the raid with you.”

Amie gulped and wiped her eyes. Then she stood up and with unsteady feet walked back to the longhouse. To mend the quarrel more than likely.

Linke sighed and shook his head as he picked up his kantele again.

“  
You think this has to do with where they were stolen from? Or is that just a Southern thing?”

Linke shook his head at Gustav's question and idly played.

“  
I don't know. I'm just glad we got her turned back around.”

Gustav stared at the longhouse and grunted then they turned back to other conversation. Women could be so strange.


	2. Follow Me Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some called spouses have to be willing, even if they aren't born to the idea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How Julian can to have a wild Picti named Yu as his husband.

Yu crept closer to the invaders camp and watched.It wasn't that he was unhappy with seeing Hrothgar's people discomfited.That pleased him a great deal.The oath-breaking bastard deserved every terrible thing that fell on his head after what he'd done to Uwae.

Yu took a calming breath.Thinking about his sister and how she died wouldn't do him any good right now, not when he was trying to make sure the men who had made such a mess of Hrothgar's fine holding didn't continue on their path and destroy his own people's mean little homes.Until his niece Alwe was old enough to sing the mists thick and dance them into confusing motion he would do everything he could to keep the people safe.

He had scratches on his skin, but couldn't feel any of them through the numbing properties of the woad paint he'd covered every scrap of skin with before coming out on this night raid.He'd taken a bit of wax from the wreckage of Hrothgar's holding and used it to spike his dark hair in every direction.Yu didn't like how the lime paste most of his fellows used bleached his hair, so he found other methods to make himself more intimidating.

He settled in to wait.Brave he might be, but stupid he wasn't.And one lone warrior against a full camp of Northmen was _leagues_ beyond stupid.If he waited until they slept he'd have a much better chance of thinning their numbers down.

The camp slowly settled after their meal of stolen beef.

Yu perked up.

They were leaving only minimal guards.He counted. Only three.

Carefully he crept around to the one that looked like he was most likely to doze.He'd eaten well and drunk deeply and wasn't fidgeting or pacing like the other two.

Idly Yu observed his prey.He was a pretty man, tall and thin, with long dark hair being raked back into a confining ring and tied.This man wore a hard leather hauberk over what looked to be a heavily padded shirt.Most of the other men wore an odd mix of chain, chain with small plates worked in or even chain with solid plates atop it.His helm and sword had been set aside, both in easy reach.

Not that Yu expected it would have helped him if he'd had a weapon in hand.

He shifted and cursed in the back of his mind.Just his luck his target wasn't falling asleep, but the other two men _were_.The fidgeter and the pacer had both settled and looked to be dozing.

Yu waited as the pretty one got up and paced a little.

Then he turned and Yu felt like he'd taken a club to the skull.

And his target's eyes went round in shock; his knees came unstrung and left him kneeling on the ground staring at Yu.

Yu had no doubts he was locked in the pretty mans sights and more clumsily than he had in years crawled out to face his target.

Morrigu had it in for him tonight and maybe her sister Crendyladd as well, because the urge to kill this man had twisted into a burning need to hold him down and fuck him, then to _keep_ him and protect him from all comers.

The gulp from his prey made Yu grin.He'd seen where those pretty eyes had looked, and he was naked but for his paint, his tattoos and his hair, none of which would hide his stiff erection.He was a proper man and faced his enemies where they could see he had no fear.And he did it properly and shaved down there to make things look larger than their already generous size and length.

Yu shifted closer, his target gulped again and reached for him.The touch lit sweet fire in Yu's veins and had him reaching back, yanking at his prey’s armor and clothing.

He wanted skin, and he wanted it **_now_**.

Apparently his prey wanted skin as well and clumsily helped him peel all those silly layers off to expose skin creamy pale and soft laid over smooth sleek muscle.

He was surprised by a kiss, but then was eagerly devouring his prey's mouth.His prey, his gwledd, only his, no other man or woman would feast on this fair meal.

Yu shoved his trysor back onto his back and gathered a bit of the excess paint on his sides and reached between the other mans legs.His reward was a gasp and those thighs spreading wider to let him in.Yu was rough in his need, but from the gasps and the way his prey bucked up into his hand and tugged him closer said he wanted this just as much.

He slid in and had to stop to breathe and focus.Yu's eyes lingered on the dark streaks his paint left on his prizes fair skin and he grinned.It would take weeks for the blue pigments to wear off untreated skin, he'd oiled his body before applying the paint so it would mostly scrub off. He pulled back and thrust hard into that tight heat and gasped in pleasure to feel the other man writhe up to meet him.

He moved again, harder and shifted angles a little.His treasure was gasping and pleading with him, and the sounds gradually formed themselves into words Yu knew and understood.

The first one was 'yes', then 'harder'.

Yu shifted to answer that demand and had his prey scream in pleasure and gasping over and over again sounds and words begging for, even demanding more and harder and there as his hands clung tightly to Yu's shoulders and his legs wrapped around Yu and pulled him in deeper.

He didn't much care that the scream had awakened most of the camp, didn't care that torches and weapons had been snatched up and that his enemies were gathering around him. All Yu cared about was seeing that face twist in pleasure, hearing that voice crying for more in tones of increasing desperation and need.

Yu was so lost in watching his treasure climbing that peak to fall off the other side that his own end caught him completely off guard and he came with a soft cry.

He just knelt there with his arms bracing him over his new found lover and panted to get his wind back, then he looked up and growled at the circle of amused faces.

One, a big man with his soft fair hair hidden under a scarf smiled boldly back at him and teased in words Yu could understand.

“Never thought you'd charm a wild Picti out of the wood Julian.”

Yu looked down, Julian, the name suited his treasure.He stared in wonder at the man's smile as he looked up at the man who had so boldly teased him.

“When you get hit I'm going to laugh for a week Sami.”

The chortles that followed had Yu a bit uncomfortable.But he brushed it off as the unease of looking around and seeing himself surrounded by heavily armed men.

Reluctantly he pulled out, but he reached down to cuddle his Julian close, scowling at the circle of smiling faces.

The big blond, Sami, set aside his weapons and just reached for a blanket from the pile that Julian had laid out and draped it around them both as Yu watched him with wary eyes.

“Get some sleep Jules.”There was a sudden light behind the man's pale eyes, then an impish smile spread over his face.“I think you're going to need all the rest you can get.”

~0~

When dawn broke Julian was alone in his blankets, and only the smears of blue on his skin told everyone that last night hadn't been some strange shared dream.

To the amusement of almost everyone those blue smears and smudges didn't wash off, not even when scrubbed with sand.So Julian was left to wear blue marks on his sides and chest, between his legs and on his hands and arms where he'd clutched his Picti tightly.

There was a good bit of teasing going both directions, but as they gathered their loots and headed back toward shore and where their employer was waiting to pay them.Well, had better be ready to pay them.Julian kept looking wistfully at the trees.He'd already fussed at the war band for scaring off his Picti.

Sami had retorted if he scared off so easily he wasn't a good life-mate.

But Julian just sighed and settled in beside Risto who was at least marginally sympathetic. He found his life-mate, and at the moment she wasn't being terribly cooperative.Risto had ended up having to clip her shackles to a bolt by his bunk to keep her from trying to brain him every time he got close.The shy looks and sweet smiles that worked so well on the girls back home only had a limited effect on this woman, so Risto had to do things the hard way.

Julian sighed when he saw their employer standing on the beach with his very small collection of guards.Wulf dropped the sack holding the head of the man they'd been sent after and the man blanched but waved his men forward with the chest that held the rest of the silver that was their pay for this little job.

Then men who'd been left to watch the Dragons reached willing hands over to help load their plunder and pay and to help their wounded aboard.

~0~

Yu had hated leaving his treasure, but knew that this was the time his dear sister had foretold.Uwae had never been wrong in a prediction of travel for her brothers so he'd been careful to keep his belongings somewhat minimal.He paused to scrub his paint off before he climbed carefully over the hidden walls to his Mother's house and crept in.

She looked up at him and Yu flushed, naked as he was there really was only one place he could have been.She smiled at him and nodded.

“The time's come then.”

Yu's eyes stung and he nodded.

“Those raiders, they had women?”

Yu felt his face heating and his mother chortled.

“Men as pretty as a woman?”Then she sobered and levered her old bones up.Yu moved quickly to help her from her bed to her place by the hearth and carefully built up the fire a little too warm her.

“It won't be long now then.”

“But Mami,” he fell silent when his mother placed her fingers on his lips.

“Shush my gwyllt un, we knew this day would come. All your sisters and brothers are provided for; I was only waiting for you to find your way.”

Yu felt his shoulders slump, but nodded and when his mother gave him a gentle shove he got to work dressing and packing his few things into a sack.Two changes of clothing, his fur lined cloak and a few bundles of herbs to make his paint and poisons with went into the sack, when he turned he let out a little cry.

His mother was slumped more than normal in her seat. He knew if he touched her she'd be still, to still.

Yu grabbed his bag and his weapons and fled.

His high pitched keening wail as he fled into the bogs around the village told anyone awake that Morag Mist-spinner was dead.It woke others, and by dawn his sisters would be preparing her for her final journey.

They wouldn't ask where he had gone.They had heard Uwea's prophecy and knew Morag wouldn't be dead if her last child hadn't found his life path and set his feet on it.

~0~

Yu scrubbed his face with a hand and stared down the beach at the boats that would be his new homing place.His soul mate and treasure would be here soon.So he only had a little while to watch the rising sun through the morning mists.

He whistled a bare thread of a tune and watched as the mists swirled a bit thicker around one of the great Dragon boats the Northmen used.Yu smiled a little, his treasure slept on that boat.

All he had to do was get aboard.

Carefully he skipped from rock to rock, to keep from getting his feet wet.He waited for the watcher to pace away from the prow and its proud carved dragon and carefully tossed his bag aboard.Then he waited.

The sentries paced around again, and Yu was both pleased and vexed.They weren't using a set timing, they varied their pace.That was good; it meant his treasure's war band wouldn't be easily caught off guard.It was also bad; it made it harder for him to sneak aboard.He leapt and caught the dragon's lower jaw and waited.

Silence.

Yu swung his legs up around the great beast’s neck and then inched over the side, only then did he carefully, quietly settle down beside his bag.

The mists aided him by thickening briefly, and he was able to scamper across the deck right under the noses of the sentries as they commented to each other in words he didn't understand.

He slid carefully down the steep steps to the lower deck and waited for his eyes to adjust.Once he could see he crept down the rows of bunks and took a sniff from each bit of bedding.Only one hint of the proper musk and Yu was hard and aching again.

He tucked his bag in a corner of the bunk and settled in to wait.

~0~

Julian cast a longing look back through the mists toward shore, then heaved a sigh and headed down to his bunk.Normally he'd have stayed on deck with his brothers, but right now his heart hurt too much.

When he got to his bunk there was someone already in it.

Julian opened his mouth to yell at the interloper but then froze.

Without the blue paint he looked completely different. His dark hair was still wildly disordered and his gray eyes were still keen, but now held a sadness that had Julian reaching for him.

Julian let out a little sob of his own.He'd thought he would have to leave his heart behind and here he was. Julian cuddled close to that lean body and felt strong slim arms holding him back just as tightly.

He let out a little noise halfway between a laugh and a sob.

“I don't even know...”

“Yu.My mami named me Yu.”

Julian couldn't help the laughter that bubbled up and smiled when he felt Yu kissing his closed eyes.He was happily kissing Yu breathless when Torstig let out a yelp.

“Who in Hella is that?How did _he_ get aboard?”Torstig had reason to yell, he'd been one of the watchers left behind as he'd been healing from a wrenched ankle from their last raid.It boded ill if someone could sneak past his guarding spells.

Julian rolled his eyes when Yu planted himself squarely between their Skald and Julian and drew out two slim and wickedly curved knives.

“I don't need protecting from my own brothers.”Julian scolded as Sami slid down the stairs and took stock.

A crooked grin crept over the big blonds face.

“Torstig, Julian was hit by the Calling.That's his mate.”

Julian bit his lip to try and keep the giggles inside.

Torstig just boggled for a long moment, his eyes ping-ponging from Yu to the blue smudges on Julian's exposed skin.

“Only Picti paint themselves blue.Why are you covered in blue and he isn't.”

Yu relaxed a little and with a twitch of his shoulders tucked away his knives and pointedly turned his back on the Skald.Julian couldn't help it, the giggles escaped and he saw, to his joy, Yu’s gray eyes lightening with mischief.But Torstig was still babbling.

“How did he catch a Picti anyway?”

Sami drolly answered.

“I think the Picti caught him.We were encamped on the way back and woke to find our watchers asleep but for Juke, and Juke was getting fucked until he screamed for more.”

Torstig blinked.

“Lauri needs to set his ravens on the sleepers then.Uh.”The wicked grin had Julian rolling his eyes.He couldn't wait until the Calling flattened the letch, if the gods were kind his future wife would lead him a merry and _painful_ chase.“So he's really good, eh?”

Julian yelped when Yu pounced and began to strip him of his clothing again.He didn't try fighting him though, his hands felt far to good from that.That and the way Yu nipped and nuzzled his way over Julian's neck was rather distracting.

Torstig let out a cough as Yu shimmied out of his leather trousers.

“Okay, I guess that answerers my questions on tool size.”

Sami broke up in delighted chortles when Yu looked up and with a grin that easily matched Torstig's most wicked ones said in rather broken trade.

“Not size of tool, skill of user.”

Then he set about making Julian scream again.


	3. Wait? WHAT?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jyrki trips over his bonded, and learns the hard way that the Calling can hit before they both are of age.

Jyrki snorted in amusement as he watched the Holding mill about. It was clearly a friendly raid, and one that was expected. Otti had carried his declaration to Thorvald as had four other young men and the girls they wanted had been carefully 'hidden away' in the center most longhouse. The men milled about and yelled, the women were clearly torn between exasperation and laughing themselves silly and Arto had just found where the women were being kept.

He scanned the Holding idly in case some witless thrall took it into his empty head that the Holding really was being raided and went for a weapon. Accidents like that got men killed and left women widowed before they were wives.

So far all was well.

Then he caught a glimpse of dark hair and soft pale skin. Jyrki focused a bit more intently and if he'd been moving would have stumbled to his knees. As it was he had trouble staying standing.

Blue eyes, his kulta had blue eyes.

Jyrki was moving before he could even think if this was a good idea or not. He made his way over to the main longhouse, the one Thorvald slept in, and reached hungry hands out to the slender young man standing in the doorway.

This one, he had to have this one.

A squeal, that betrayed the fact his treasure was more boy and less man, was lost in the hue and cry and Jyrki settled his armful securely and turned for home.

The fact that Otti wasn't beside him with his Anneke didn't register until he was more than halfway home.

But Jyrki didn't stop, couldn't stop and go back for his brother. He kept going, past the outer guards and the group of fathers waiting for their boys to bring their wives home and then carry them up to the prepared lodges high above the Holding. His own father was in that circle and jerked in surprise to see his older son carrying someone into the longhouse with so intent an expression.

Jyrki laid his precious burden in his bed and looked at him.

“ Was there a reason you carried me off? My sisters were in the longhouse.” Jyrki's knees came unstrung as his captives voice broke.

Blue eyes stared into his. And suddenly an impish grin spread over the boys face as he realized what exactly had happened.

“ Jyrki? What?” Jyrki whimpered. His mother. His mother come to see what the fuss was about. Otti and the other men who were raiding wives tonight had a special place to go up in the hills above the fields. He'd just taken his prize right back home.

“ Hallo,” chirped his prize, his _child_ prize, Jyrki groaned and scrubbed his hands over his face.

Explaining this was going to be a walk through Hella, he could just tell.

~0~

Jyrki grumbled as he walked behind Jussi. The boy bounced, and chattered and kept turning that infuriating, endearing grin back on him. The imp had him twined round his slim fingers and _knew_ it.

Jussi wasn't even fourteen, so his mother had shooed Jyrki away from sharing the bed and when that failed had banished him from the longhouse entirely. His father had been endlessly amused once Otti had brought his Anneke back, dutifully shown her to his parents and carried her up to the hidden lodges for the proper three days in 'hiding.'

Now he was taking Jussi back to his father. Thorvald would be within his rights to be furious for Jyrki snatching his son. But from the amused smiles on the faces of the men guarding the perimeter anger wasn't something that was a real concern.

Jyrki winced and tried not to stare at his treasures pert little backside.

Reluctantly he dragged to a halt in front of Thorvald. From the twitching at the corners of his mouth he was finding this endlessly amusing.

Jyrki sighed and looked up at the big man and hailed him properly.

“ Hail, Thorvald, Ivvor's son.”

Thorvald's blue eyes sparked mischief.

“ Hail, Jyrki son of Ulwe.” Thorvald cocked his head and gave Jussi a once over. “And you my son.”

Jussi grinned and bounced in place and had Jyrki squirming internally before he started gleefully chattering. And he told everyone in earshot _everything_. From the initial snatch to meeting Jyrki's mother to Jyrki being tossed out of his own bed because he couldn't help wanting to touch.

Jyrki was sure he was in for it when Jussi's mother sighed and swatted her husband over the head. And for so tiny a woman she clearly had her tall husband neatly in her small fist.

“ Enough. Foolish man. Can't you see the poor boy wants the earth to swallow him up?” Then she firmly tugged Jyrki over to the main cooking pit and fed him tea and sweet pancakes wrapped around sausages and grilled him about what had happened last night.

Jyrki left the Holding feeling like he was leaving a piece of himself behind and that now he knew how Thorvald kept track of all the happenings in all the nearby Holdings.

He asked his wife.

He buried his face in his blankets and tried not to cry when he got home. He could smell Jussi in his bedding, but he couldn't have him. His heart was to young and he couldn't have him.

~0~

It took Otti dumping him in the sea before he quit moping. It took his mother giving him a brutal scrubbing while scolding him soundly to get his mind really working again.

His Jussi wasn't lost to him forever. He just had to pull his head out of his nether regions and put together a proper place for the young man. Just because Jyrki's Calling had pulled him to another man didn't mean that he shouldn't have a proper home ready and waiting for when he was old enough to be properly stolen.

So Jyrki started planning.

~0~

Jyrki settled his chin on his folded arms and watched the Holding below. He had eyes for only one of the people working at gathering up the last of the harvest and could really have cared less for the comely girls showing off their calves as they worked. His Jussi wasn't much taller than he had been two years ago, clearly taking after his mother's blood in his compact size and slender build. But his hair was black as a raven's wing and his eyes were a clear bright blue.

And Jussi was drifting toward the near edge of the field as he gathered up dropped handfuls of wheat with the heads still hanging heavy on the cut stalks.

A little closer.

Just a little closer.

Jussi paused and turned back to call a playful tease at one of the girls and had Jyrki grinding his teeth in frustration.

He just needed a few more steps.

Jussi laughed and turned back and took those few critical steps.

Jyrki pounced and had Jussi in his arms and was off at a run through the woods as the outcry went up.

He had his Jussi.

He made it to the river and was in the small boat and headed downstream before the Holding had organized enough to come after him.

Jussi laughed at him where he was sprawled in the bottom of the boat.

“ It took you long enough.”

~0~

Jyrki growled and pounced Jussi again. The little imp refused to stay still. The instant he'd tied the boat off at the hidden inlet he'd chosen for his obligatory three days in hiding with his chosen Jussi had been a menace in constant motion.

First he'd dumped Jyrki headfirst into the icy cold sea, then he'd kept just out of reach in the small lodge Jyrki had built. He'd refused to help Jyrki haul water or firewood or even to scrub the salt off his back.

Finally Jyrki's control snapped and he seized Jussi and crushed his slight form under his own larger one into the bedding he'd carefully snuck out of the Holding to make a proper bed out here.

Jussi squealed and wriggled in ways that had Jyrki's blood humming in his ears. But when Jyrki leaned down to kiss him Jussi didn't turn him away. Hungry kisses turned to eager mutual exploration and Jyrki got to see Jussi's face as he came just from Jyrki's hand on his prick.

Jussi screamed and came with Jyrki's mouth on his prick and came begging when Jyrki finally oiled up and took him properly.

They barely left the bed to eat after that.

When Jyrki set the torc with otters on the terminal ends around Jussi's neck Jussi pounced him flat and returned the favors done him until Jyrki screamed his name.

When Jyrki reluctantly packed them up after a week to head for home Jussi just grinned impishly at him and stroked slender fingers over the otters on Jyki's torc before tugging the taller man down to kiss him.

“ Don't worry. I'll protect you.”

Jyrki smiled and snuggled his little love into his arms.

“ I'm sure you will Rakkas. And I'll protect you.”


	4. That Infernal Man

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Love comes in many forms, sometimes with insults attached.

Tash sighed.

The man was making it infernally difficult to stay annoyed with him.

She knew he loved children, his reaction the the ones his war band had stolen from her village had made _that_ very plain. He'd held each and every one of them, from twelve year old Evan to little Bess who now only answered to Katja. He'd caught Duncan when he tried climbing the rail of the boat and he'd sung little Owen to sleep.

And that was before they'd gotten back here and Tash had found the bastard was surrogate uncle to every child in the Holding.

He'd reacted with complete calm to Amie's daughter always having enormous ravens following her about like so many tame kittens and to her son sleeping with a hunting cat that Tash had difficulty believing wouldn't just eat him if he got annoying enough.

He'd laughed like a mad bandit when Torstig's wife had gone into labor. But she'd gathered that Torstig had been a terrible brat to his brothers on the subject of their wives. When he'd heard the news that Cherie would only give her Skald husband the one child he'd sobered. Then he'd turned his considerable skills to ensuring little Toivo would grow up hale and healthy.

So far the little menace had. Right now he was curled up with Elise, Mikko and that monster feline of his, and napping under the watchful eyes of Elise's ravens.

Tash stopped tying herbs into bundles for drying and counted years.

She'd been here almost seven years.

Tash looked down at the herbs in her hands and considered things.

Her first pregnancy had caught her by surprise. Her eyes tracked over to where little Otto was watching Sami comb out Mira's long silver hair. Mira and Sami could both be trusted to make sure the child didn't scamper off to try and bother Tahvo in the smithy, which he did with alarming regularity.

Her second pregnancy had been less of a shock, but she'd thought that infernal man would be disappointed when she delivered of a girl this spring.

Tash looked over to were her fool of a husband was lying on his back on the sod berm around the longhouse, his daughter cradled securely to his chest as she napped.

Tash shook her head.

By now she should know better.

Given the choice Atti would hold any child and sleep in the sun. Why did she think his own child would be any different?

Katja had run out of steam a little while ago and come to cuddle into her adoptive father's side to sleep until she recovered her energy.

Atii sleepily reached down to stroke Katja's braids.

Tash sighed and gave in to the inevitable. She set aside her herb bundles and moved to sit by Atti's head.

His eyes opened and he smiled sleepily up at her. Just as if he hadn't set her all out of temper this morning by telling her she needed to rest.

“ Wife.”

“ Husband,” she answered with a deeply ironic twist to her tone. She sighed and settled down to stroke his hair.

Atti just smiled and cuddled in a bit closer and shifted Anna a little so he could free a hand to stroke her hip as he dozed back off.

He might drive her out of all patience on a regular basis, but at least Tash knew he loved her. She settled in a bit more comfortably and closed her eyes to nap with her family in the warm sun.


	5. He Followed Me Home

Lauri scrubbed at his face and sighed before looking down into the open and eager face of his son.

He understood that children would bring animals home. Normally though they'd be young rabbits, the kittens of the Holdings cats or things of that nature.

His daughter's Ravens had 'followed her home' before she'd even been delivered from her mother's belly. And now with the twins being six he'd thought things would settle out a bit.

Hwurr gronked at him as if to tell him that he should have known better.

Lauri shot his raven a half hearted glare and looked back down at the child standing in front of him.

He'd known Mikko liked cats, but why in the name of all sanity did he have to find a half grown Red Mountain hunting cat to bring home? The thing was clearly still more kitten than cat from the size of it's ears and paws and already it was almost to the top of his thigh.

Mikko just pulled out the Eyes on him and hugged the cats neck. For a wonder the cat kept on purring and showed no signs of discomfort.

Then again Elise's ravens had never shown any sign of discomfort when she'd hugged them as a baby.

Lauri turned his gaze to the breeder, who looked to be doing his level best not to laugh.

“ Apologies Skald, but I don't think I could keep the cat given as he's taken so strongly to your boy.”

Lauri sighed again.

That had been rather what he'd been afraid of.

Amie was going to kill him.

Hwurr gronked again in amusement and flipped his wings to settle the feathers neatly.

~0~

Of course he didn't get any chance to break the news to his wife gently. His daughter had seen them coming through the eyes of T'tick and Ruur and had promptly run to tell her mother.

It didn't help that she'd clearly told everyone else in the entire Holding on her way to tell her mother either.

If he didn't love these men as brothers he'd be sorely tempted to murder a few of them in their beds just in payment for the amused looks they were giving him as he and Mikko walked up the last bit of the path.

Mikko cat was curled up asleep in the small cart he'd taken off to carry his trade goods and bring back the things his Amie had wanted. The whole of the Holding had been going back and forth to the Midsummer gathering as it was so close this year.

Amie was waiting for him with her arms crossed over her chest.

Lauri sighed and went to face the wrath of his wife.

“ What happened to 'no livestock'?”

Lauri winced.

Mikko bounced up with complete disregard for the warning signs.

“ Look atti, he followed me home!”

Lauri gulped, tried a sheepish little smile and a shrug that he hoped conveyed how helpless he felt.

Amie just looked at the huge catling as he yawned and revealed more than enough sharp teeth to give any sane man pause. Then the creature murped at her. An insanely tiny sound out of so large a cat.

Amie gave him a **_look_** as Mikko happily chattered along and Elise and her birds came in to get a closer look.

It didn't help that he could hear snickering from around the firepit.

~0~

Lauri had to admit later, when he was watching his eldest sleep that maybe it was a good thing. Maybe now Mikko would stop bringing kittens from the granaries into the longhouse. 

At least the huge cat seemed to understand that Elise's ravens, and his own birds weren't to be chased or eaten.

And the great cats _did_ have a reputation for being some of the best guardian partners on four feet. Only a few types of great hound were better protectors.

He sighed and snuggled his wife as she looked down at their sleeping children and their creature companions.

His wife was extraordinary, why had he expected his children to be anything else?

 


	6. Boys

Toumas wasn't sure why their father was bringing them this far north. He expected poor Wilhelm would be glad when they got where they were going though. Sea travel just didn't agree with him at all, and he'd been sick before they'd started.

He huffed and stared out at the steep cliffs on either side of their boat as it threaded it's way deeper inland. It stank still being considered a child. He was _ten_ , hardly a baby anymore. Wilhelm was the baby. Toumas refused to consider that his brother was younger by only a few hours, he was younger, and thus still a baby.

Then they rounded a curve and Toumas felt his eyes go round. They had a poured stone dock. Only a few places had those, and this one was _huge_ and covered over in neat cedar decking. 

He frowned.

For as big as the dock was there sure weren't many boats.

Maybe father would have to take his goods elsewhere, that wouldn't be a good thing. Toumas chewed his lower lip and stared at the beach as it got progressively larger.

There were people. Men with weapons, but no-one acting like they felt his father's boat was a threat. There were also a group of beach gleaners coming in with their baskets filled with seaweed, clams and who knew what all else.

Toumas gaped in shock when one of the circling birds plummeted for the beach and winged back to land on a man's arm.

They had a Raven Skald, Wilhelm would be beside himself. They both had been incurably curious about the fabled raven keepers when they'd been tiny, but no one had been able to answer how it was the men ended up partnered to the great birds.

Toumas huffed when the men moved him out of the way and went about the business of tying up to the massive dock, dropping rope bumpers and throwing lines to men on the dock and double checking that the sails had been tied down properly.

He went below to get his brother. Wilhelm wouldn't want to miss this.

~0~

Atti frowned intently as the man laid out his problem. Two boys, only one was outwardly healthy, the other sickened for no reason they could see and no healer had been able to work out a treatment or permanent cure. He shot a glance over to his wife and had to stifle a smile at how she rolled her eyes as she nursed their newest child.

Somberly he agreed to look at the boy, but he made it very plain he wasn't promising any changes. Privately he felt that if they hadn't found any cure by now there might not be one to be found. Unless of course the _treatments_ were what was making the boy ill. He'd seen such things done with the younger of a set of twin boys before, especially when it was southerners with their inheritance nonsense. It just tended to have consequences for the older child that the adults never thought to consider.

But they'd wait and see.

~0~

Sami watched the trader's older boy with wry amusement. He'd already wanted to know why some of the men acted like women and been rather rude in how he'd asked.

Jonne had huffed at the child and told him flat out he was **not** a woman and then walked away to find Jukka. Jussi had laughed at him and been carried off by Jyrki and several of the other bonded males had reacted by ignoring the question, and the questioner, entirely.

So far the boy hadn't clued in that the more obnoxious he got the less attention they paid him.

Sami stifled a smile when Mira muttered something very rude under his breath, but then relaxed again under Sami's hands.

“ I don't think dropping him in the sea will help. He might scare away the fish.”

“ The only things he cares about is his brother and his own amusement.” Grumbled Mira as Sami ran the comb through his long hair.

“ At least he cares for his brother. That proves he's not a complete spoiled brat.”

“ True. I still wish that trader had taken his healthy son with him when he left, a season on a trading vessel might fix some of his self centeredness.”

“ Maybe. Maybe not. It looks like Freyja has gotten tired of his antics.”

“ Ah?” Mira opened his eyes and looked to see where the sullen boy child was being handed a gathering basket and sent off after strawberries. He smiled in amusement. At least Freyja hadn't set the boy the task of gathering mushrooms, at this time of year he'd likely have poisoned himself. Atti had enough on his hands pulling the sickness from the younger brother, having to to it to the elder as well would be a bit much to ask.

~0~

Toumas grumbled and stomped up the path to the place he was supposed to gather berries. Gathering was a woman's job. He was a man, well almost a man.

He was so busy grumping and stomping that he missed seeing the dark haired girl until she'd pounced and knocked him flat on his ass.

“ Hey!” Toumas scowled up at the girl and paid no attention to the raven feathers decorating her two braids. “Get off!”

The girl grinned impishly at him and settled a bit more comfortably on his stomach.

“ No. You're stomping around and will squish the berries. So quit being an olepahnt.”

Toumas scowled.

“ I'm not an olephant. Olephants are made up.”

The girl rolled her eyes and stood up.

“ Then you really are an idiot. Uncle Julian has books that have Olephants in them. The little Oriental one and the big Afrikaan one. Lots of books from different places, and with the same pictures. Why would so many people get together and lie?” 

Toumas gaped as she walked off and started the hands and knees searching for the tiny red berries. He'd never been called an idiot before, and never by a girl.

~0~

Jukka started snickering and that had Jonne rolling over to see what had gotten his lover's attention. He let out a soft hiss of annoyance when he saw the boy that had been driving him out of all patience. But then he saw the boy foundering in complete confusion as Elise treated him exactly as she did the other boys her age.

Well except in this boy's case he had no idea what to do when she started calling him names.

Jonne had to stifle his giggles in Jukka's shoulder as she called him seven kinds of idiot and got him soundly twisted about. Eventually the poor kid decided it was safer to shut up and pick strawberries. Not that he'd find many on this side of the field, Jukka had already swept it for ripe ones to feed Jonne to get him into a better temper.

Then they both had to stuff their hands in their mouths to keep from giving away their hiding place. T'tick winged down to land by Elise and the boy tried to bluster and 'protect' her.

If Lauri had been there he'd have killed himself laughing at the look his daughter shot the poor idiot. The look on the poor boy's face when she scooped T'tick up like he was a kitten and put him on her shoulder was worth Elise's weight in silver, and when she huffed and walked away with her basketful it was all Jukka and Jonne could do to not cry with laughter.

~0~

Wilhelm liked Elise, she'd sit with him and tell him what was going on outside. He liked her birds too, they'd let him stroke their glossy black feathers and would take tidbits from his fingers.

He'd started feeling better now that Healer Atti had pulled the worst of the poison from his body. His wife had been furious when she'd leaned that someone had been feeding him arsenic. But then she'd focused on helping her husband pull the poison out and in feeding him foods that would be gentle on his recovering system.

Wilhelm did bother to wonder why he'd been poisoned. His father was a wealthy trader, it could have been done for more reasons than he had fingers to count.

Elise had brought him strawberries and they'd made a game of checking each berry over for any tiny flaws. Her birds would happily eat the ones that had bruised spots and her father's birds had figured out the game and come in for their share of the bounty.

Elise's father had followed his birds inside and Wilhelm finally got to ask a Raven Skald all the questions he had on what it took to be partnered to the birds.

The answers had surprised him.

The _birds_ made the decision. If you weren't suitable no amount of work would make the birds change their minds.

Then he'd asked why Lauri's wife could handle his birds just as casually as Lauri could. Wilhelm had seen her petting one in her lap like it was nothing more than one of the Holdings cats.

The answer there had him boggling and then giggling weakly.

Each bird was their own person, with their own quirks and character. The bird he'd seen in Amie's lap was called Ewie, and he adored Amie and had almost from the very beginning. He'd snuggle her and take any treats offered simply because he liked being petted and fed. The other two birds would stand guard over her simply because she was Lauri's wife.

Lauri explained he'd been picked by Hwurr when he'd been barely more than a boy and the other two had followed within a few years. Elise had her birds following her while she and her brother had still been in their mother's belly. And he'd explained that, that and his failure to ask the proper questions had caused no end of confusion.

Wilhelm had giggled when he realized Lauri had failed to ask if his wife was carrying twins, just asked the gender of the first born. It was always comforting to know even the grown ups sometimes got so excited they didn't think.

It had caused a fuss when they'd learned the birds were there for _Elise_ and not for her brother Mikko. Mikko had bonded to a huge hunting cat and Wilhelm had seen them a few times when Mikko brought rabbits or other small game to his mother.

It made him really look forward to when he was well and could go out hunting with the other boys.

Somebody had to make sure Toumas didn't make an ass of himself.

~0~

Lauri stared down at the two boys sleeping in the same bed and pondered a remark Elise had made. Then he sighed and went searching for Amie.

His wife needed to know their daughter had decided that Wilhelm and Toumas would make good husbands. Once Toumas pulled his head out of his nether parts anyway.

 


	7. Take Me Home

Jonne wanted to cry, but had no more tears left as he stared down at the beach with its constant washing of waves on the shore.He wanted desperately to go home but knew if he turned up on the threshold his father would simply beat him soundly and drag him back here.

Here to a place specifically chosen to purge his strangeness from him before he'd be allowed to return home for William's wedding.

 **If** he was allowed to return for his younger brother's wedding.

He'd already learned that Thomas had been married off to the girl their father had chosen.But at least Elizabeta had liked Thomas, and Thomas sort of liked her back.And Sofia would be a good match for William, and William actually thought he might be a little in love with the pretty thing.

But father had chosen a girl who was fat as a sow and ill tempered on top of it.The fat part he could have gotten beyond if she'd had a decent temper, fat girls made fat, healthy babies easier.But Marguerette had a temper as nasty as the Holding's worst tempered sow, the one the Castilian kept _swearing_ to turn into bacon if she overlaid yet another piglet or tried to savage yet another serving man.God himself knew Elizabeta wasn't what one would call slender, but she at least had a sweet temper and wasn't prone striking everyone around her for trifles.It was miraculous that Marguerette _still **had**_ serving women she struck them so often.

And that was before his father had caught him mid tryst with one of the serving men.

Jonne hiccupped a little as he looked down at the beach.He was getting tonsured today, whether he liked it or not.And Brother James had a nasty habit of cutting people he disliked and he'd disliked Jonne from the instant he'd laid eyed on him.So all he had to look forward to was a messily and bloodily shaved head and a lecture on gratitude.

Jonne didn't understand why Brother James hated him so much, he was an unwanted middle son too, just _his_ father had wealth enough to bribe a monastery into keeping him here unwilling.

If he thought the fall would kill him he'd have considered jumping, sin and all.Hell couldn't be worse than this.

Reluctantly he turned and walked the coastline back toward the walls of the monastery.

He'd all but run north when he'd been informed of his fate and had a fair walk to make as the ridge dipped lower and lower until he was only a few dozen paces from the roaring surf.He stopped and looked up as the ridge began to rise again to the steep cliffs that the monastery perched on.

Jonne was so lost in his thoughts he didn't realize he had company until a pair of strong arms wrapped around his middle.

He yelped and squirmed until he could face his attacker and then he was struck dumb.

His squirming had upset the man's helm and tumbled it to the grass by their feet and Jonne could see long and soft dark hair being tugged in the breeze.The blue eyes that caught his were laughing, and Jonne found himself smiling.

“Hei.”

Jonne blinked and wriggled a little.The arms around him tightened and he was being pulled even tighter into the other man's chest.

“Uh, hello.”

The man smiled and Jonne felt his heart lift.

“Come with me?”

Jonne blinked.He couldn't have just heard those words.Then he was gasping and kissing the man breathless.

An escape, he was being offered an escape.

But once he started kissing his savior he didn't want to stop.He found himself being half carried further up the beach to be laid down in the grasses. There the hated robe was shoved up and knowing hands made him cry out in pleasure as a clever mouth showed him pleasures he'd never imagined.

When he'd come down from the high of being touched in a way he knew was sweeter than even his brothers would get in their marriage beds he managed to ask his savior's name.

“Jukka, Jukka son of Herlig.”

When he was asked why he was there the answer had Jonne grinning.

“My brothers are scouting a way up to the Holding on the cliffs.”

Oh yes, vengeance would be sweet.

“I'll show you.”

~0~

Jyrki was dubious; Jussi a good bit more than that, but Uther and Wulf felt that the little blond monk was worth trusting.So they followed him up the steep and twisting path to the Holding.

Brother Joshua scolded him soundly, and was so focused on the scolding that he didn't realize Jonne had wedged the little door where it couldn't close and latch properly.

Jukka crept up and watched as his chosen was dragged away by the ear by the door guardian.But no replacement came up so they crept in quietly and ranged out to take best advantage of the nooks and crannies of this place. A bit of careful recon and they learned where the best storerooms were, where the monks slept and a better way out to the beachhead.But it was best used if there was no opposition.

Plans were made and passed through the men.And once the plans were set Jukka went after his chosen even as his brothers made sure that none of the monks here would be able to defend themselves.

If Sami and Wulf hadn't been with him he might have blown their cover and slaughtered the monk who was beating his chosen one.But they were right there so all he could do was snarl silently at the bastard as he stood over his precious blond, _his_ Jonne.

When the bastard left with a stern injunction for Jonne to consider his sins and take the night to reflect and repent Jukka was across the stone floor to gather Jonne up in his arms.

He didn't expect the bark of laughter.

“Father's Ghillie beat me harder than that.Let me get my breath and I'll get my things. The gold father left them to keep me here is hidden under the floor of this chapel.They don't know I saw them hide it.”

Wulf and Sami shared a look and began tapping carefully at the floor with their spear butts until they found a faintly hollow sounding spot.

Then they grinned and pried the stones up.

Jukka though, had no eyes for any treasure but the blond man in his arms.

A quick kiss and Jonne was up and moving away from him.

Sami caught his arm before he got two steps after his treasure.

“Let him go, we need to set the signal.”

Jukka let out a plaintive moan but obeyed.He had his light bow and an arrow with a bundle of waxed flax tied behind the head that he lit at the lamp above the altar.The head itself was odd, and when he loosed it out the window and into the air above the courtyard it screamed into the gathering darkness.

The monks likely felt that scream heralded hell opening up.

The rest of the war band pounced on the unsuspecting monks and cheerfully reaved their way through the monastery.Any monk who was too much of a nuisance got soundly clubbed for his pains.And a few got very messily dead.Most simply cowered in their beds or storerooms and were left alone.

Jukka took a great deal of pleasure in planting an arrow in the back of the man who had beaten his Jonne.Then he walked up to him and very calmly used his axe to make very plain his displeasure.

He started his explanation by taking the hand that had beaten his chosen.

He finished it several minutes later by taking the bastards head.

Then he'd whistled as he'd helped his brothers loot the place to bare stones.

He'd been lowering a bundle of looted woolens to the beach below when he felt slim arms around his hips.

Jukka turned in place.He'd half expected he'd have to go searching for his heart once the work of clearing this place was done, but his joy was boundless when he found Jonne beside him, his monks robe kilted up to show slim and shapely knees, calves and ankles.

Sami laughed at him and Iason groaned when rather than setting another load to lower down he tumbled his love to the grass and began sharing sweet kisses.

“Enough, enough.Jukka, you'll have the whole trip home to prove your prowess with your spear.Load now, frolic later.”Sami teased when he saw Jukka hiking Jonne's robe higher.

With a low grumble Jukka let his Jonne up.After a bit more token grumbling he loaded his most precious treasure into the sling to be lowered to the beach.The next load down had the two sacks his love had brought with him in it and another lot of the good woolen cloth they'd found hidden in a room behind a storeroom filled with root vegetables.

The silver, gold and other rich treasures had already been divided between the three Dragons and loaded.

Jukka growled when he watched his brothers look over his prize but had to smile when Jonne looked back up at him when Othar brought out the shackles any taken prize wore until they were safely back in the holding.

“We aren't going to get any meaningful work out of him.”

Jukka pouted at Iason.

“Mm,” agreed Sami as he worked, with the last of the cloth being lowered they were down to things like sugar, spices and food stocks.Then Sami's eyes lit up in the torchlight.

“But his didn't run from him.Or try and club him silly.”

Jukka grinned, Risto’s catch was still giving him pure hell as he tried to get her back to the boats.

Sami gave him a little shove toward the sling as they dragged it back up empty.

“Ah, get you down there.You're useless to us up here.”

Jukka laughed and went.

~0~

Jonne was a little nervous given he was shackled to a bunk. The bedding smelled of the man who had caught him.Jukka, his Jukka.But he was still a bit jittery as the rest of his Jukka's war band loaded up their boats with the plunder they'd gained from the monastery.

He'd no idea that there was so much silver hidden away; or so much fine wool, silk and linen so fine you could read a manuscript through it.And he'd seen one of the raiders taking great joy in the manuscripts that had been in the library and scriptorium here.Another man with wildly spiked black hair and the elaborate tattoo's of a Picti kept bringing him armfuls to look over.

Jonne watched the men sort themselves out and gasped when he felt the boat under him jolt and shift.The Picti smiled at him and spoke in a way that was clearly meant to reassure, even if it was a bit confusing.

“Lauri makes boat go.Deep water soon, no pushing just sails.”

That didn't really make sense. But after a few moments his Jukka was coming down the steep steps that led up to the deck and Jonne was squeaking at the way the man eagerly pounced him and snuggled in close.

“Hei.”

Jonne couldn't stop the giggle that escaped as Jukka rubbed noses with him.He missed the warm look the Picti shared with his partner and the smiles all the watching men shared.

He was too busy getting kissed and petted to care.

~0~

Wulf had to laugh, Jukka had been hit by his Calling, and his little life mate had made their last raid a particularly profitable one.The only injuries they'd had were Torstig and Risto.

Risto had taken a pot to the helm when he found his chosen.And the girl had raised Hella itself screaming her pretty little head off until Risto had gotten her into the basket that Atti and Jussi lowered to the beach.Getting her into the basket had been easy; getting her back _out_ and across the short space between the sling basket and the boats was rather harder.The girl kept struggling and was strong enough that Risto had pure fits keeping a hold of her.Atti and Torstig had been in the next load once Risto's treasure had dumped them free of the basket and Atti had left Torstig laughing himself silly on the beachhead to go get his pottery bottle of sleeping potion.

Torstig had been busy laughing himself stupid and twisted his knee on the slick stones that were everywhere on the beach.Atti had just laughed and hefted his shield brother onto his shoulder to carry him out, still laughing as Risto tried to sweet talk his battle bride into a sweeter temper and got screamed at for his troubles.

Then they'd gotten safely out to sea and Atti had gone below to check on Jukka's prize and found the man being loved into a whimpering and pleading mess in Jukka's bunk.

He was shackled like Uther and Wulf decreed and his shackles were secured properly with a bit of chain to the bolt by Jukka's bunk.At least Atti thought so from how he was moving; it was hard to tell with his robe tangled up around his arms.But the man _was_ begging, not to be set free and released on the shore, but to be released so he could _touch back_.

Atti sighed and shook his head and kept walking.Yu was cuddled securely behind Julian, and Julian was busily paging through manuscripts to see which was the original and which were the copies.Copies he'd sell or trade away for pretties for his chosen.Yu might not read, but he enjoyed watching Julian so captivated.

At least for a while.

Once the temptation was too much he'd set aside the book his lover had in his hands and set about making him scream in pleasure.

Atti paused to check on Risto.The blow to his head hadn't jarred anything looser than it had already been, and while he had a bruise he didn't have a lump.His prize was drugged in the bunk beside him.And the girl had been a right terror to dose; she'd spat two mouthfuls in his face and bitten Risto soundly before they'd managed to force her to swallow a partial dose of the drug.Even then she'd landed a solid kick to Risto's groin and added insult to injury and had gotten Torstig as well.He'd been slowed down by his injured knee and laughing too much for him to dodge particularly well.But even doubled over in pain the man was laughing.

Atti had to stomp on his envy as he watched his brother stroking the soft dark hair of the woman who would be his wife with a look of entranced wonder on his face.

He growled when he saw Torstig limping back from the bucket they used as a privy.A breath later and he had his shield brother securely in his bunk and was menacing him with the bottle he kept his sleeping potion in.

If Jukka didn't finish off his prize soon he might well partake of a slug or two from it himself.Bad enough to be ship bound with Yu and Julian when the Picti got amorous.Or worse when Jussi teased Jyrki into having him hard on the decks.Three happy horny pairs was a bit much for a man to take.

Torstig took his dose meekly and Atti escaped to the deck above.

Maybe Iason and Sami were still playing dice and would let him join in.

~0~

Two days out and Lauri had voiced the opinion that the shackles were pointless on Jonne.

First the man had set the torc that matched his around Jukka's throat already and Jukka was petting the twin hounds that decorated it whenever Jonne wasn't handy.

Second Jonne had been securely cuddled into Jukka any time he was on deck and had already teased Jukka into fucking him hard bent over one of the beams that divided the deck across the width of the ship.That had provoked Yu into having Julian on his hands and knees on deck and Jyrki into spanking Jussi and turning the tiller over to Sami to take his little lover below to fuck stupid.

Third Jussi claimed he'd seen Jonne running _toward_ Jukka where he was at the cliff top lowering their loot to the beach with the winch and basket set up the monks clearly used.And Jonne kept putting his bound hands behind Jukka's neck when they were together and nuzzling up close in a manner that was sickeningly cute.

Not the signs of a man who wanted to escape, unlike one of their other captives who had chosen to go over the side and drown rather than submit to captivity.

The man likely wouldn't have made a good thrall anyway, but it was still a waste.

Uther decided to sell the other four the next chance they had rather than deal with the bother of taking them home.For one having them around might give a restless and vengeful spirit something to home in on. The last thing they needed was to have them decide to emulate their brother's trick.Lauri had spent most of the night singing the drowned man to a proper rest so his spirit wouldn't follow them home and make trouble.Having two Skalds in the war band made this kind of thing possible and had saved the Holding from many a bought of nasty illness carried by an angry ghost.

~0~

Five days from home and Uther had them stop at a place that looked to be having a fair of some sort.Risto had to keep his prize drugged in his bunk but Jukka unlocked the shackles on Jonne and went off trading for pretties for his treasure.

Julian had traded books for spices, silver and a string of drilled garnets three times his height.

Uther had Julian find him a man who needed slaves, and wasn't too particular as to their origins and unloaded the troublesome monks.

Risto and Torstig got to watch as Jonne paced on deck waiting for Jukka to come back and were privy to how his face lit up when Jukka came back with the fruits of his trading.

There would be no running away from this man.If Jukka was involved he'd be running _toward_ them.

~0~

By springtime Risto had finally convinced his Elsa he was serious about wedding her and the whole longhouse had been witness to his celebration of her surrender.

Torstig kept teasing Risto and Jukka but both men just smiled and warned him when _his_ time came they were going to laugh.

Jonne had made himself a favorite with the Holding's women.Ylsa had scolded Jukka for not feeding his chosen and swept Jonne off leaving Jukka gaping after her as she herded him to the cooking pit she and Freyja prepared meals on.

Aethar had shaken his head and muttered if Jonne hadn't been soundly wed he'd have been tempted to drown the pretty young man as much attention as he got from the wives and daughters.And Aethar's wife had 'pished' at him and made sure he had a platter full of his favorite fried sausages and a good mug of ale before she went on to fuss over the poor confused blond.

Of course after Jukka had demonstrated how his love adored being tied to their bed and made to scream Aethar had shifted his grumblings to other topics.

But they had other things to do then.

Planting and birthing season kept most of the Holding busy.And because he was hopeless when it came to menial tasks Jonne was set to watching the mares due to foal.That proved a good place for him.The Holding's beasts all seemed to adore him, from the cats that kept the granaries free of rats and mice to the hounds that walked with the hunters and perimeter guardians. Jukka had gotten used to having one of the granary cats curl up and sleep in their bed with them, and to see Jonne smile in the mornings when the monster woke him by shoving his nose in Jonne's face.Well, to him seeing Jonne smile was worth any price.

But Uther closeted himself off with the Skalds after Lauri had awakened three nights running with strange dreams.

They readied the Dragons.

Jonne clung tightly to Jukka the night before they set sail and Jukka loved him as hard as he could and still stagger to the boat in the morning.

Jonne huddled into Jukka's cloak and watched as the boats sailed.Then he curled up by the last pregnant mare and stroked her nose as he talked.

He missed Jukka already.

~0~

Jonne had been learning the care of the horses when the cry of 'sail, sail' went up over the Holding.The colt he'd been brushing had gone bounding off in reaction to the excitement and after Jonne set the brush down he went running toward the path down to the beach.

The Dragon's were home and Jonne had to laugh a little at the Picti when he hopped out, ran up to steal a cuddle from Ylsa and Freyja and then went scampering back to his mate.But then his eyes caught with Jukka's and he was running again.

~0~

Atti sighed and shook his head in amusement.No running away from that one.Jonne had seen Jukka and come running to his mate and Jukka had swept his lover up into his arms.

It had left their three prizes staring in confusion.Lauri had very reluctantly handed his Amie down to Tahvo and leaped down himself to take her back when it proved that her legs thought the land should move like the boat had.

Torstig's Cherie kept trying to stand on her own, and it took Freyja shooing Torstig away and helping the poor thing stagger unsteadily up to the holding before the girl would accept any help.

Tahvo helped Sami with his prize but Mira was drugged deeply asleep again.And Atti had to grin at the look of blank surprise on Tahvo's face when he realized his brother had found his match.The looks on the man's face as Jussi cheerfully began recounting Sami's trials would keep a great many people amused.

He glanced back at Jukka and rolled his eyes.

Jukka and Jonne were still standing in the waves kissing.

Atti sighed and turned to help unload the Dragons. He had to stifle a groan when he saw Risto's wife standing there waiting.And quickly went below to start hauling when he saw how his brother’s face lit up as he ran to his wife.

~0~

Jukka panted and struggled to hold perfectly still.He'd wondered at why Jonne was always so silky soft to pet and Jonne had explained he shaved.

Jukka had blinked.He shaved, so what did that have to do with anything.

Then Jonne had hauled him down to the creek and demonstrated.

Shaving his legs, arms, chest and back felt odd, but really no worse that shaving his face.

Then Jonne had started shaving his balls.

Just the feel of sharpened steel down there had him breathless and turned on.By the time Jonne finished he was begging.It took all his will to not come on the spot when Jonne rinsed the last fuzzy bits and wisps of soap away.

But once he was clean Jukka pounced and Jonne squealed.Jukka whimpered when his teasing lover squirmed around and pushed him back into the thick moss on the creek bank.He almost screamed when Jonne straddled him and rubbed their pricks together.

He did scream when Jonne reared up and lined his cock up to slide down on him.

He didn't remember thrusting up like a mad thing, didn't remember clutching Jonne's hips hard enough to leave marks or coming with a shriek and passing out.

Jukka did remember waking though, and having Jonne lying atop him with his chin resting on his folded arms and wearing a smug little grin.

“Uhh?”

Jonne smug little grin turned into an impish smirk.

“Liked that?”

“Yes.”Jukka rolled them over and pinned him impudent lover under him.“I get to do that to you next.”


	8. Blueberry Kisses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Atti is Christian of Lovex....

Atti hummed softly as he cradled his infant son close to his chest. Tash was sleeping soundly in the longhouse and after waking to feed their little one she'd, for once, listened to his plea to get more rest and gone back to sleep.

He was perfectly capable of changing swaddling, he'd done it for little Katja all the way home. He'd continued when it proved that she'd bonded to him and would cry and fret if given over to any other. He'd been a bit bemused by that, all their other stolen ones had been handed over to eager arms. Even the oldest boy had been taken by a man whose wife had given him three daughters before proving incapable of carrying another child.

Evan was happy, all the children were happy and most didn't remember any parents or names but the ones they answered to now. It was part of the strange magic that taking a child in worked. Evan had had a few nightmares, but his parents had been dead long before the raid where they'd taken him up and he hadn't been happy with his uncle.

Atti smiled when he looked over to where Mira was helping feed several of the toddlers, his Katja included. You couldn't tell by looking which had been born here and which had been foundlings carried off. The summer berries were fat and sweet and the bounty was plentiful this year if the sheer number of racks set out with drying berries. His fussy one was much happier eating berry rich oat porridge than she was the plainer sort sweetened with honey. Otto let out a little squeak and yawned into Atti's tunic, he wasn't able to hold his head up very well yet but when he was awake he wanted to see. For all he'd come early Ylsa and Freyja confirmed he was healthy, and he was growing so fast Atti swore Otto was heavier every time he picked him up.

Then Katja was at his knee with her little cap filled with blueberries. He had to chuckle, his little angel wanted to feed her brother blueberries. And in spite of his warning he was very small and might not be able to eat anything that wasn't mashed up she tried. Of course at three she wasn't very good and holding the berries gently and before they got anywhere near Otto's mouth they were soundly smushed. The ones she offered him still tasted good in spite of being smashed.

Tash was going to take one look at the purple smears all over her son's face and swaddlings and all over Katja's face, hands and tunic and little purple hand prints all over his own tunic and, if he was lucky, walk away. Otto in spite of his small size seemed to be enjoying gumming mashed up berries, but Atti wasn't sure how many were getting into his little tummy. He seemed to be perfectly happy drooling them on his shoulder.

There was a sigh from behind him.

Atti hunched his shoulders a little, then turned to face his wife.

Tash had her hands on her hips and was looking at him with exasperation.

“ Wife,” he offered sheepishly.

Katja just went 'uh-oh' and scampered back to Mira's knee.

Tash just sighed again and firmly took little Otto from his arms, she wiped his face with her apron, but that didn't do much for the purple stains around his mouth. All Otto did was squeal and flail his arms a little.

“ Bathhouse Husband. I think you and both our little ones are in need of one.”

Atti breathed a small internal sigh of relief.

“ Up Husband, haul firewood.”

Atti grinned a little and stood, pausing to steal a kiss.

“ Yes, Wife.”

Then he went off to haul wood to heat water to bathe his little ones.

By the time he was finished he'd been affectionately scolded by every woman with children and gotten sweaty. He just sighed and nodded, it had just been plain berries, not ones sweetened with honey, so his son wasn't likely to come to any harm.

Tash was heating water and sternly sent him after their daughter.

Katja seemed to think that meant it was time to play chase, and ran squealing in delight away from him. Atti sighed and chased, but he had to smile, because when she tired she went from running away to running _into_ his arms. He swept her up in his arms and tickled her as he carried her off to her mother.

Tash had Otto clean when he got there and he mutely handed Katja over to get her little face scrubbed clean and sat down on the wooden bench to watch his son sleep. He had a full head of soft dark brown hair, just like he and Tash both did, but somehow he'd come out with Atti's blue eyes rather than his mother's soft brown. He had his mother's snubbed nose, but Atti knew the cleft in his little boy's chin was from him.

The splashing stopped and Atti heard his little girl complain she was sleepy. He looked up just in time to see Tash giving him a fond look.

She nodded toward the basin and he nodded and stripped down to his trews make use to the still warm water.

He felt gentle fingers on his back and turned to cuddle his wife in his arms. He rested his cheek on her hair and sighed in quiet contentment as he looked down on their sleeping little ones.

Two years ago if one of his brothers had told him they dreamed him happily wed with two children he'd have checked them over for sun sickness, drunkenness or hallucinations.

Now though he had his Tash, his stolen child and their son.

Life was good.

 


	9. Questions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Otto is about ten...
> 
> Isa means father and Aiti mother.. and Kids ask the stickiest questions sometimes...

 

“ Isa?”

Atti grunted to let his son know he'd been heard and after a moment he got the trailing ends of the thread out of his mouth where they had been as he'd laced something tightly closed. Otto looked a bit pensive, and that was a bit unusual for his sunny natured son. The boy chewed his lip for a moment and then blurted out his question.

“ Do you love Aiti?”

Atti blinked in confusion but didn't hesitate in answering.

“ Yes.”

Otto blinked and the next question came tumbling out. 

“ Then, why don't you call her by her name? Julli and Seppo, well...”

Atti began to see where this was going, Julli and Seppo were the new fosterlings, neither stout enough of body to go raiding but both more than clever enough to learn from Aethar.

“ Wanted to know why I call you Aiti 'Wife' and she calls me 'Husband' when all the other pairs address each other by name.”

Otto nodded.

“ They asked if you'd had to buy a wife, or get one given to you.”

Atti snickered, no one at this Holding had had to buy a wife in generations and the two he knew of that were 'gift wives' were cases where the man physically couldn't go steal the woman the gods chose for him. 

Aethar's wife had been stolen by Uther after a third year of seeing him pining after Lyra. Ylsa had almost died laughing when she'd been asked if she was being set aside for a younger woman. Hwurlig had declared his intent and then been savaged by a rabid dog. His shield brother had gone and stolen Aella for him so that she wouldn't have the shame of being declared for and then left unstolen. Atti remembered her sitting by her husbands head as he'd performed the spells to puge the poison from his body and how tenderly she'd nursed him until he could stand for himself again.

To look at them no one would ever know they weren't prized stolen brides, they had fine tunics and pretty ornaments and fat happy children.

“ I stole her properly my son. Your Aiti was a battle bride and if she'd been a bit more insistent when I found her I might not have had a little worm to begat you with.” Atti smiled at how his son flushed a little and giggled.

“ But then why?”

Atti sobered a little and tucked his son into his side. He was developing into a strong youngster now that Tahvo had let him come and help in the forge.

“ Most of it goes back to us arguing before she consented. She'd tell me she was no servant of mine, or no slave. I would declare she was my Wife. That went on until Midwinter and the firing ceremony.”

Otto eyes went round. The tale of that Midwinter and how the gods had possessed the bodies of the folk who had drawn the gods lots was well spread now. It happened every now and again, but usually not so many of the gods chose to visit one Holding.

“ How you drew the rune for Hurr and Aiti the one for Alwe.”

Atti nodded.

The night you were begotten my son.” His smile went rueful. He still didn't remember that night, or what he'd done with Tash that had earned him long scratches down his back and left him limping from overstressed muscles for days after.

“ Aiti hadn't consented yet?”

Atti grimaced.

“ She allowed me to share her bed, but no more than that. The next day she was most displeased with me, and pointedly called me Husband. Neither of us remember what happened that night, but when we woke she'd set the torc around my neck and it could not be undone.” Atti smiled again. “Never let it be said your Aiti is not a woman of strength and will, when she went into labor she found me to serve me a swift kick before Ylsa and Freyja were able to get her to the birthing bed.”

Otto squeaked and his hands twitched reflexively to cover those bits.

“ But I have siblings!”

“ You do,” agreed Atti. “Because in spite of our words we love each other very much.”

“ So when Pauli came and tried to steal her from you...”

Atti snorted at the memory. The poor buck had listened to the words and not paid any attention to the gifts Atti showered his wife with and the affection of their actions toward each other.

“ He got a very unpleasant surprise and amused my brothers a great deal. Your Aiti is very much a woman cast from Alwe's mold.”

“ What foolish tales are you telling our son, Husband?”

Atti smiled and reached for Tash as she came up beside him and set her gathering basket on their shared worktable. She let him pull her closer and rub his cheek over her filling belly. She was pregnant again and something in Atti told him this one would be their last.

“ Merely easing his fears that he was begotten out of a bought wife.”

Tash's snort was rude but her hands were gentle as they stroked over his hair.

“ All the Holding's silver wouldn't be enough to buy _you_ a wife.”

Atti smiled into her belly before looking up at her face.”

“ And well do I know it, Wife. How fortunate that I stole you.”

Tash let out another rude snort.

“ And have you gotten nothing done?”

Otto slipped out as his Aiti chided his Isa about how his foolishness would have the Holding suffering the winter couch with no soothing syrups. And ran back to where the rest of the boys had gathered together.

Seppo and Julli could tease all they liked. He'd seen the gentleness of his Isa's hands on his Aiti and how she'd stroked his hair.

They loved each other, and he knew beyond doubt they loved him.

 


	10. A Brother?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> one little boy's prayers get answered... in a rather odd way.

The calls of 'sail, sail' made Karle look up from her work, that moment of distraction didn't keep her hand from reaching out to snag the sleeve of her five year old son. And Torstig let out a plaintive wail at being caught, again, and forced to stay by his mother when he wanted to run down to the shore and get underfoot.

What she didn't expect was that when she went down to see what her husband and brothers had brought back from this round or raiding was almost all the men cradling small _living_ bundles in their arms. Ulwer looked far more somber than his usual cheerful self as he carried his burden over to her.

As he'd half hoped and half feared, that bundle was a child, older than her Torstig and painfully thin.

“We swept in after a scuffle between tribes and picked up what was left behind.”

Karle let out a tiny sob, that so many children had been left. But as she watched and took careful stock all of them were between the ages on three and seven or eight. Her eyes closed. No infants meant that the men had gotten there to late to save them, the rest of the children were to small to be immediately useful to slavers. To much trouble to bring along, easier to just leave in the wake of the raid.

She reached for the child and her husband handed him over so she could settle on a low berm below the walls and above the beach to check him over.

Long unruly black hair that made her thing of Jyrki's when he was growing it out to braid up properly and fine drawn features. He'd be a striking man when grown with that strong jaw and those high cheekbones. He'd be the envy of many women with those thick dark eyelashes as well, but he was thin, so very painfully thin.

Torstig for once didn't go haring off at a sprint to badger his uncles for presents, he stayed nearby and crept up to peer down into the older child's face. He looked down just as the older boy's eyes fluttered open showing he had gray green eyes.

The two boys stared into each others faces for a long tense moment. Then Torstig looked up at her and in his high piping voice asked;

“Did Isa bring me a brother?”


	11. Teasing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a hint of playful written for 2011 MMOM

Sami purred in contentment and basked in the summer sun. Mira was nearby, gathering herbs and flowers he knew while his sisters swept the berry vines for any ripe fruit.

In theory he was guarding the gatherers, or helping to anyway. But they were near the Holding and it was warm, so he'd shed his outer tunic and belly-flopped in the sun warmed grasses and was lying there listening to the women's work songs and deep drone of the bees.

He rocked up on his elbows when he heard a round of yelps, but relaxed when he heard Yu's clear laughter and Julian's delighted chortles of glee.

Someone must have dared someone else to try and raid the nearer hive. With predictable results given he didn't smell the smoke Yu and the other hive tenders used to calm the bees so their honey could be plundered.

Idiots.

Atti wouldn't be amused to have to drag stings out of their hides. And the gods help them if they got Tash instead of Atti. Tash had no tolerance for youthful idiocy.

Sami settled back down with a contented sigh.

And reared back up with a yelp when something cold and wet slithered over his back.

Mira's chuckle had him panting, but he still was stuck as his bonded settled a bit more securely on his back.

“Mir!”

“Hmm?”

Sami squealed as Mira began wringing out his sopping wet braid.

“Mir!” Sami writhed around until he was on his back looking up at his lover. His shirtless lover.

“Hmm?” Mira questioned as he smiled down at Sami.

“Why are you wet?” Not the he was complaining, oh no. Sami's hands stroked gently up Mira's sides.

“Torstig.”

Sami groaned, the prankster had probably tried to douse his wife with a bucket of water and missed. He groaned a second time at the way Mira's backside wriggled into his groin. Then he was yelping as his lover caught his wrists and tucked them neatly under his knees, leaving them trapped at Sami's sides.

But then he was undoing the lacings of his trousers and Sami's mouth had gone dry.

He knew the slim column of flesh that rose up from the soggy linen, knew it's taste, it's texture, knew how to use it to drive Mira absolutely mad with want.

And Mira was teasing him, slowly stroking it to full hardness, peeling the foreskin back and stroking pearly drops down the length.

Sami let out a low cry and struggled, then yelped again when Mira's clever fingers found one of his nipples and tweeked it through the linen of his tunic. He wanted out of his tunic, out of his trews. Wanted to be able to stroke his fingers over Mira's length, nuzzle the slender throat and bite at those dusky nipples.

Mira wasn't letting him, was teasing him by stroking slowly over his own length. Sami let out a low cry of frustration and need, he could see Mira's hand speeding up, feel his hips bucking up harder, faster, could even smell the rich musk of arousal.

Finally, when Mira's head rolled back and his eyes closed Sami found the leverage to shift them over. But he wasn't quick enough to catch the spill with his mouth. Sami growled and lapped at the spill and made Mira squirm under his teasing tongue before he moved up to demand a kiss.

The smile that lit Mira's green eyes made him smile as well.

“Oil is in the bottom of the basket.”

Sami grinned as scrambled to fulfil the unspoken request.


	12. Stalking

Yu smiled and quietly stalked his prey.  He'd taken care to step lightly on the moss and leaves on the river bank and now had his treasure in sight.

The slender man was busy washing his long black hair and was utterly oblivious to observers.  A quick ducking under water and the man was vigorously running his hands through his hair to rinse away any soap left from the initial ducking.

Yu licked his lips and greedily eyed the slim man's lean body, and let out a soft growl when one fine boned hand reached down to stroke at a still limp penis.

He crept closer.

He'd shaved for this, and spiked his hair with a bit of wax swiped from Ylsa.  The woman probably was fully aware of his little theft, and, if her smile was anything to go by, approved his little hunt today.

The slender man had his head back, eyes closed, as he slowly fondled himself to full hardness.

Seeing him bite his lower lip was too much.

Yu pounced.

His prey let out a loud squeal, but barely struggled as he was carried to the far bank and crushed under Yu's weight.

“Yu! Wha...” the protests were lost in a shriek as Yu began fingering that tight hole, going right for the pleasure buttons and manipulating them ruthlessly.

His prey screamed and thrashed under him but made no real attempt at escape.  Before long the screams settled into demands and those fine hands were clutching his shoulders with strength enough to leave marks.

Yu grinned and kept taking ruthless advantage of those pleasure points.

At least until his pretty victim turned the tables and managed to roll them over.

“Fuck me you bastard Picti!”

Yu grinned up into Julian's flushed face.  But he didn't get to tease that he knew quite well who his father was before Julian was taking his hard prick in hand and lining it up to slide down with a low moan of need.

From there Yu was more interested in Julian's tight hole, how hard he was riding down and how sweet his cries were.

A hand on one sharp hip, the other snaking up to grip a shoulder and leverage himself hard into his lover, his treasure.

~0~

Morgan stared, her fist in her mouth her eyes round as the two men loved fiercely on the far bank.

Iason coughed softly and reached for his wife.  He expected a sharp elbow to the gut and thus was quite pleasantly surprised when she spun in place and pounced, all but tearing his tunic and trews off.

Then he was yelling his pleasure to the world as his wife demonstrated her desire of him by riding him hard.

~0~

Jukka sighed and tugged Jonne off.  This section of the river was well and truly in use.

They'd find another place to play today.

~0~

Sami saw Iason and Morgan coming back from the river and ducked his head to hide the grin when he saw the ear to ear beaming grin of delight his brother had on his face.

But then Morgan in a fit of impudent mischief kicked the hem of her full skirts under her husband’s feet and watched him flail wildly as he tripped and fell.

Mira let out a low snort of amusement and went back to combing through Sami's hair.  Sami fought down the snicker, but failed when Iason landed hard on his ass with a loud yelp.  It didn't help that Atti had been chasing little Katja trying to get the little girl's hair braided and the child ran right to Iason to ask in her childish way if he was alright.

Atti broke up laughing.

That attracted more attention, and everyone knew of Morgan's little trick by now and snickered when they saw Iason on his butt, flushed and laughing up at his wife.

~0~

Julian rested his chin on his folded arms and filled his eyes with the sight of his sleeping husband.  Today he resisted the urge to trace over the inked wings engraved in the skin of Yu's back.  He knew even the lightest touch of his fingers would wake Yu and he'd get pounced and loved until he screamed again.

Not that he objected to that plan really, but he was a little sore and wanted to just watch Yu sleep for a while.

When they'd met Yu had pounced him and ravaged him until he was screaming and begging and roused the whole war band in the process.  Sometimes even now he'd come back from trysting in the woods and Sami's eyes would rest on the bite marks Yu liked to leave on his skin and get a small, almost smug little smile.

Almost the same smug little smile he'd used on Julian when after he awakened sore, trembling and alone after that first night.  Several others had made cracks about perhaps the shy Picti wasn't his called spouse.  And he'd felt like his heart was being torn from his chest while still beating.

But then they'd gotten back to the Dragons and he'd gone down to curl up in his narrow bunk and found it occupied.

Yu hadn't been covered in blue war paint; he had been dressed in rough but good linen and soft leather and fur.  The black hair was still in wildly disordered spikes and his gray eyes had been so sad.  Until he heard Torstig yelling and turned to catch Julian's eyes.  Then they had lit up and Julian had felt like crying as he'd thrown himself at his heart.

He'd been loved until he screamed again, in the relative comfort of his bunk and been teased mercilessly by his brothers for setting off every other bond pair on the boat.

Then Jukka's sharp eyes had spied a prize potentially worth a great deal of trouble.  An enclave of the White Christ perched on a cliff top.

Julian had been half terrified he'd found his husband only to lose him when they'd begun scouting.  But Yu had been able to get into the enclave when the rest of them couldn't even see a way to quietly get over the high walls.

Jukka had found a young monk outside the walls.

More critically said young monk was not happy to be there, and when Jukka found him the gods had a merry laugh at their expense.  It had been pure hell to get Jukka to let the pretty blond go so he could block the one gate they had into the blasted place open.

Until it happened none of them was quite sure Jonne was being true to the man who was certain he had been Called to his side.

But he had been.  And with a bit of care and Yu's clever scouting they'd found a huge windfall.

Julian smiled and traced the wings again with his eyes.

After that raid and the grousing of Torstig about how Yu had snuck aboard the Dragon to get to Julian there had been murmurs that perhaps his ink gave him wings in reality.

He knew it was the other way around.  Yu had been inked with the wings because he had a rare talent for stalking.  Julian had slowly been getting the stories of the bit of ink out of Yu.  The numbers on his fingers came from a man who came from the very far south, from a place where the hills were made of sand and the horses had strange humps on their backs.  The mark on one should meant ghost, for his seeming ability to walk through walls just like a spirit could.  The bird on his chest and one of the marks on his forearm came from a stolen bundle of silks.  The bird had been embroidered on a length; the winged and clawed triangle had been burned into a scrap of leather buried in the bundle.

He fingers twitched, then his eyes went round.

Yu's eyes were open and from the light behind them he had been enjoying being watched.

Julian smiled and when Yu's hand reached for him went willingly into his lovers arms for a slower, more gentle loving.

~0~

Jukka panted and swore.  He'd tried begging but Jonne was being an absolute imp today.  After hearing Julian screaming and begging and Iason's lusty yells they both had been more than a bit wound up.

He still hadn't expected Jonne to follow through on the threat to tie his hands if he didn't stop trying to touch.  He squirmed and got a sharp nip of teeth on his hip as a warning to stay still.  Jonne no longer had the razor in his hand, they'd finished shaving and Jonne had gone right to teasing.

That mouth was pure sweet torture.  Those clever fingers torment and sweet promise.

Then Jonne was kissing him and Jukka was faintly grateful

It muffled his scream of pleasure when Jonne drove into him.

~0~

Freyja smiled as she finished rinsing out the last of the wash.

It was good to hear so many of the Holding's young couple's taking advantage of the lull after spring planting to reaffirm their bonds.

And speaking of reaffirming bonds, she thought she could hear Uther's tread on the path.


	13. A Days Observations

Lauri heard the squealing of happy children and rolled over in his bed with a low groan. Then he groaned again.

Amie was off with Cheri and the other Holding women collecting berries and other wild edibles. He hadn't been coherent enough to be allowed out of the Holding after spending the better part of the last four days tracking down a lost fishing vessel. Now that said boat was safely beached he'd been catching up on all the lost sleep.

But he missed his wife.

With a low groan Lauri levered himself up out of bed and groped for clean clothing and began to dress.

Hwurr let out a low ratcheting noise at him and hopped up to a padded shoulder. He already knew Ewie was out with Amie and T'larr was circling high over the Holding keeping a general eye on things.

He hadn't even cleared the longhouse door when his daughter was pouncing him chattering happily at high speed. He blinked bleerily down at her and managed to sort out the T'tick had shown her a spot on the river that had otters and she'd been able to get close enough that she could watch this season's youngsters playing.

Lauri let out a low groan of gratitude when Mira brought him a basin on herb laden water to splash on his face and once he'd scrubbed the last of the sleep from his eyes offered him a mug of tea and a sausage wrapped in a pancake.

Breakfast made the world make a great deal more sense.

Atti's loud yelp made him look up and snicker in amusement. Tash was pregnant again and Atti was trying again to get his wife to rest. As usual she was having none of it and was serving her husband with sharp kicks to punctuate her aggravation.

The fact Tash looked ready to deliver at any moment didn't help poor Atti's worry. And given he was more than capable of counting back the days and knew she was due any day was just making the man more determined to tie leading strings on his wife.

Not that it had worked on any of Tash's other pregnancies.

Lauri yelped when he was grabbed by strong hands.

“Hide me.”

Lauri let out a low snort. Ville had brought his called husband with him for a bit of trade talk on behalf of his father and the man was purest mischief, rivaling even Torstig and Linke's antics as children.

“Brandon, what did you do this time?”

“I put a small octopus in his mug.”

Lauri closed his eyes and tried not to laugh as Brandon ducked behind him again.

Ville stomped up yelling and Lauri was snickering, trying desperately to stifle it and failing miserably.

Ville's mug had little brown tentacles trying to climb out of it, and Ville kept trying to keep the small creature in the mug without getting bitten.

“How did you manage to catch one?”

Brandon looked up with laughter and mischief lighting his blue eyes.

“By accident. Ruhe left a jar in one of the tide pools and it was in it when I went to get the jar.”

Lauri went serious.

“It didn't have blue rings?”

Brandon shook his head.

“Just brown and red and gold splotches. No blue.”

Lauri let out a low sigh of relief. He'd never seen an octopus with blue rings in Home waters, but one never knew. Even a tiny blue ring could kill a man and never leave a mark on him. He stifled a grin at the look of frustration on Ville's face as he tried to keep the little thing in a container it clearly wished to leave without hurting it or being hurt himself while searching for his imp of a called spouse.

Lauri managed to stifle a grin at the way Brandon squealed and ran when Ville caught sight of him. He also managed to rescue both mug and octopus when Ville dropped it to chase his husband. The poor animal was looking up at him from the bottom of the mug with huge golden eyes, so Lauri gave it his fingers to taste as he walked down to the shore.

Apparently the creature could taste his intent as it seemed content to wind curious tentacles around his fingers as he moved down to where the surf was rolling in with the rising tides.

He dipped both mug and hand in the water and had to nudge a bit before the little thing jetted off, oddly not leaving a cloud of dark ink behind it. Lauri laughed a bit and rinsed the mug before taking stock of how things were going on the beach.

The gleaners were at their tasks, with a few of the older children making a game of gathering up seaweeds. Lauri waved at Jyrki and Jussi as they directed a small crew who was rowing out, to check crab pots more than likely.

He let out a low snort as he walked back up the path. Linke and his mad lot were spending time with them as Gustav has been called to be husband to Ilse and she was expecting their third child. Linke and Torstig had been having a grand time amusing Cherie with tales of their antics as children to help distract her from her worries over Toivo's pranks.

He also had to smile when he saw his own firstborn son and that blasted cat he'd bonded to three summers past pacing part of the perimeter with one of the guards.

That got him looking for his other offspring.

His daughter was with Mira helping Freyja with a meal. Her ravens watching with wise golden eyes and collecting treats enough that he wondered how the birds weren't to fat to fly.

His second son, Tulli was being watched by a bemused Sami and Lauri knew his youngest daughter had gone with Amie to gather. He closed his eyes and with a bit of care figured out from T'larr's eyes where his darling wife was.

Then he grabbed a blanket and went hunting.

~0~

Amie sighed in aggravation as Ewie settled and began feeding his face with berries before she could pick them. Shooing him with her hands just made him shift slightly over to another patch of ripe fruit and look at her with clear amusement in his bright yellow eyes.

“Ewie, glutton, you can strip vines we can't get to you pig. Leave what we can reach.”

Her answer was a fluffing of feathers and a cheerful sounding gronk punctuated by a clacking of the birds beak.

Like she'd ever been successful it shooing Ewie off of food. At least he was diligent in keeping snakes away from the children, and he had shown them an unknown patch of strawberries that was now being plucked clean of ripe fruit.

She yelped when she felt strong hands on his hips, but had to smile at Lauri's happy grin when she turned and saw who her assailant was. He'd worked hard finding their lost fishermen and getting them returned home to their wives and children, but Amie had missed her husband in their bed.

And it looked like he was intent on making up for lost time if the blanket slung over his shoulder was anything to go by.

Cherie made a shooing motion with her hands and distracted little Anna by pointing out an unplundered section of vines.

She squeaked when Lauri swept her up in his arms and carried her off.

~0~

Ville hummed softly and stroked his sleeping husbands curls away from his eyes and watched the goings on of the Holding through the open door of the longhouse they'd been guesting in.

The Skald girl put up a hand and one of her birds settled on it to shuffle up to her shoulder and nibble a bit of hair escaped from her braids in his beak.

He knew girls could be skalds, one of his sisters had a memory that had one of the old druids offering an enormous bride-price for her when one of his apprentices felt the Calling to her. Their father had considered it for a very long time before asking why the boy didn't just steal her as was usual.

It seemed the boy had come from much further south, where the gods callings weren't so easily heard and was trying to do honor to her.

Illise had reacted by 'capturing' her husband to be. He was expecting at any point this summer to hear she'd delivered of their first child.

But for all her faultless memory Illise was still a common Skald, not a Raven friend. And little Elise had ravens watching over her cradle, he'd seen it with his own eyes.

He looked down at his husband and tried not to wonder at what it meant.

Ville looked up sharply when the sounds of daily life suddenly went oddly muted.

Elise was still by the fires, but she was taller, a woman grown and not an almost scrawny girl child. She wore raven feathers braided into her long black hair and held a bow in one hand and one of her birds aloft in the other. At her feet was a slender man running his hands over a large parchment covered in marks like a map such as he'd never seen before. Beside her was a man in armor with a face identical to the one at her feet.

He shook his head sharply and the noises of a Holding resumed as if they'd never gone.

Elise was laughing and tossing her bird back into the air and running toward the boundaries, her brother and his great cat ran to catch up.

Ville shivered and cuddled Brandon tighter.

Change was coming.


	14. Callings

Torstig grimaced and rubbed at the nape of his neck.

How to explain this. Toivo was sitting on the sod berm that ran around the longhouse and was looking up at him in curiosity as his fingers idly moved on the kantele's strings. He was almost of an age for raiding and had asked the question all young men asked of their fathers, uncles or other trusted male kin.

How would he know when the Calling hit?

“Uh, well, you kind of just know.” Torstig winced at the look Toivo gave him.

“I'll just know. How did mother react?”

Torstig winced. His son would ask that question.

“She tried feeding him his balls.”

Torstig sighed and glared at Lauri.

“Thank you Lauri.”

Lauri grinned at him and settled on the berm as well.

“Sharing the wealth. Mikko asked me this morning. Amie just walked off laughing her head off.”

Torstig sighed and gave in.

“That would explain why Cherie was looking so smug at breakfast.”

Toivo let out a rude noise.

“So?”

Torstig sat down and leaned back against the longhouse and began the tale.

“Understand we went raiding at a very strange time...”

~0~

Spring was a piss poor time to go raiding. The weather stank and when they got to places they had very little left. But Lauri had had dreams, the kind that foretold events and after a bit of a discussion they'd set off in the Dragons again.

They'd stopped and done a bit of trading, gotten some fresh cheese and some good bread and let Lauri's birds do their thing.

Theon just huffed and turned his face to the sun.

This was silly.

Lauri might get a wife out of this, but he wasn't going to. It was a little depressing watching his brothers find their matches when he couldn't get more than a night or two with any woman. He had children all over the Holdings, but no wife.

Theon looked over at where Jukka was rubbing a bit of silk over his cheek and smiling and amended his thought. No spouse. Jukka had had his husband run to him last winter, and the pair was terribly cute. Risto had found his wife in the same place and had come in the more usual fashion of a battle bride; kicking and screaming the whole way.

His gaze sharpened as one of Lauri's ravens plummeted for the deck. There was a cluster of islands off to their left, maybe the place they were headed for was hidden among them.

~0~

As with any raid they planned carefully using Lauri's birds and Yu's ability to pass unseen to gather their information.

This was a prosperous place, and it looked like it was dedicated to some soft southern god where the devotees were all women.

There had been a flurry of jokes thrown Torstig's way about how they should let him go ashore and charm his way through the place, but Uther and Wulf had settled that smartly as they settled in to plan their attack.

The store rooms were all on one side of the Holding, with a possibility of others behind the kitchens that could only be accessed through that room. They hadn't seen much in the way of livestock, no sheep, goats or geese, but that could just mean they were on another of the small islands. Lauri said his birds saw herds on two nearby islands, each tended by two or three girls.

Sami had teased the Skald about them having to track down a pretty herder girl for him and ducked the mimed blow at his head.

Torstig grumbled a little, but knew his nerves would settle soon. Atti's calm helped, and he let his brother help him buckle on the hauberk over his chain and turned to help him with the leather he wore. All around them men were readying for the raid. Yu was braiding Julian's hair and buckling his leather on him, then cuddling in close as he wore no armor at all. It was rather miraculous Julian had gotten the Picti to stop stripping to his skin for raids. Just getting him to wear tunic and trews was victory enough.

Seeing his brother's husband naked and erect before battle was a bit much, even though he had to admit it had a demoralizing effect on their enemies.

Wulf began directing them into groups.

Torstig grinned and bounced in place for a moment before he settled and began creeping toward his target area.  
~0~

Torstig heard Atti's groan but was to caught up in the vision in front of his eyes to pay attention.

She was beautiful. Strong arms lifting wet linens up to peg them to lines drawn across this courtyard. Long red gold hair tied back in a single long braid that almost fell to the hem of her simple gray tunic. He ignored the silver rings and focused on the slender waist and curves of hip and bosom.

He didn't register that he'd dropped his spear in his hurry to get closer.

He had to have this woman. She was tiny and perfect, he just had to have her.

Torstig pounced and the girl turned already scolding him for misbehaving around the clean wash. Torstig grinned, he'd do more than misbehave. He had her on the ground and was grabbing dry sheets to wrap his prize with and once he had her cocooned he used his spare belt to lock everything securely in place.

That she was screaming bloody murder didn't faze him at all, he just hefted her up over his shoulder and turned to bee line back to the boat.

It never occurred to him that it might not be that easy.

~0~

Atti snickered as, even bound Torstig's prize landed a solid kick to his most tender parts. If she'd been free he had no doubts she'd had left as many marks of Toro as Sami's prize had left on him.

A moment of distraction and he was grunting as the air left his lungs.

Othar's Mighty Shaft the girl could kick. Torstig let out a second yelp as his prize tried to bite him. He was a lot rougher than he intended as he forced a dose of his sleeping potion down the girl's throat, but he knew if he didn't get her dosed she'd repeat her kicks and he had no desire to piss blood for a week, or to deal with his brothers doing the same.

~0~

Torstig was frustrated, he wanted a cuddle, maybe some kisses but all he kept getting was swatted. He'd just narrowly missed getting his balls squashed again and ended up on his hands and knees on the deck to the great amusement of his brothers

If Sami hadn't been light on his feet he might have been rolling on the deck as his little silver haired hellion came to her sisters defense. Then he was rolling on the deck clutching his abused manhood as his swift one landed another good kick.

It wasn't fair that Julian could get his treasure to talk civilly, even Jussi had gotten a wry smile out of his kulta. All he got was swift kicks to the balls and tossed from his own bunk. Even Lauri was getting treated better by his precious one.

~0~

His Cherie wouldn't let him carry her up to the Holding. Her legs thought the land should move as the boat had and she was having a terrible time staying upright, but she refused his help, even biting him when he tried.

Freyja took his treasure in hand and left him sitting mournfully on the beach watching them go.

~0~

He tried pretty jewelry, and silk tunics but still got tossed out of his own bed at night.

He followed her around and tried sneaking cuddles and got elbows to the ribs and shouted at.

He tried singing to her and got swatted with a wooden spoon.

He'd even tried explaining how he needed her and gotten flat out informed that his Cherie didn't believe him.  
His treasure didn't believe him.

Then they'd had visitors and Ulstead had seen his Cherie and made a move like hundreds of playful ones he'd made before and Torstig had been between the man and his treasure growling and bristling.

Ulstead's eyes had gone round and he'd backed off, but Torstig had lurked protectively anywhere his Cherie was until they'd gone.

It had let him steal a kiss.

He'd snuck out that night and played back that sweet kiss in his mind and come without touching himself. The first time he'd been able to gain any real release since he'd brought her home with him.

He had to have more, needed to have more, to have her wanting him back.

So he'd followed when she went to bathe.

When he found her touching herself his knees had come unstrung and the need to touch had him scrambling on hands and knees to get to her. He'd whimpered as he rubbed his cheek against her inner thigh. He could smell her, a low moan and he was tasting.

No mead would ever compare to the taste of his Cherie.

He'd licked and sucked and devoured her, savored her cries of pleasure, taken fierce joy in how she pulled his hair and gasped his name as she came.

Then he'd buried his face in her belly and begged. He threw aside all his pride and begged her to let him touch her.

And she'd spread her legs and let him in.

No glory to be found on earth could compare to having his wife screaming his name as she ripped his seed from him.  
And she didn't turn him away when he brought her food with his own hands or shared his cup with her. She let him collect those cuddles and gentle touches he craved. And other than the occasional wry look she let him comb out her hair and shower her with pretty ornaments.

Then she'd set the torc around his neck and he'd pounced her, hugged her until she was breathless and spun her around and around until he tripped and sent them both to the grass of the meadow. Then he'd loved her there under the sky until she'd screamed for him, screamed his name under him loudly enough that one of the perimeter watchers had come to see why.

Peiter had just rolled his eyes and gone back to his patrol when he saw Torstig cuddling his wife, His Wife, in his arms.

~0~

Toivo considered things. And after a long moment of silence turned his blue eyes on Lauri.

“And it was the same for you?”

Lauri smiled.

“I had less hard of a time of it. I came upon my treasure sleeping...”

~0~

Lauri couldn't believe what he was seeing. Curled up asleep in the hollow between two trees was a treasure.

She had long dark hair tied back in a single braid bound buy two silver rings. Shorter bits of hair wisped around her face and made his hands itch to push it back. Hwurr clacked his beak and fluffed his feathers, but Lauri could only smile.

He'd found her. He'd found her and she was sleeping.

Carefully he wrapped the worn blankets she was sleeping on around her and hefted her up in his arms.

Then he stepped on a trailing hem and went sharply to his knees. He went breathless watching her face to see if she'd wake.

Hwurr let out a rude ratcheting noise and launched skyward as Lauri carefully tucked up dangling hems and got back to his feet.

He couldn't run, not with his sleeping treasure in his arms, so he carefully crept back to the boats. He found a low wall with one knee and a rough spot on one wall with his elbow, but miraculously his joy never stirred.

Atti he saw trotting back to the boats with two spears and what looked like Sami's helm. A moment after he climbed aboard Atti was there with his pottery bottle and was carefully trickling a dose into his kulta's mouth to ensure she'd stay sleeping.

Lauri grimaced at the screams coming from the girl Torstig had over his shoulder as he carried his prize below.  
This could get interesting.

~0~

She woke, and Lauri was captivated all over again. She was frightened, and her sister was reinforcing her refusal of Torstig's advance with a stout bit of shouting. But if he knew the other Skald at all the yelling would be just as temporary a deterrent as the kick to the balls she'd just served up.

But that was Torstig's problem.

He offered a bit of soft bread and some of the mild cheese they'd traded for to his treasure and a cup of the citrusy tea Attti made with pine needles to keep the bleeding sickness at bay. She flushed a charming pink when he asked if she needed to pee. But she'd nodded so he'd unclipped her shackles and wrapped a warm blanket around her shoulders before he guided her to the back of the boat and the slop bucket there. Behind him Julian and Yu calmed Torstig's prize and saw to her needs. Both women huddled together a bit by the slops bucket and Lauri saw no reason to deny either the comfort their sister provided.

Of course then Sami's prize had awakened and proved to be just as uncooperative as Torstig's. When his treasure started to move to help her sister he had to wrap his arms around her and calm her.

“Shh, armas, be still. Be still.”

“But, but what are they doing to h, her?”

Julian answered, but he was the one gifted by the gods with the ability to speak to anyone.

“Just a potion to keep her calm. So we don't have to fear you doing injury to yourselves.” There was a flash of a smile as he looked at Cherie. “Or to Us. Torstig's kulta packs a mean kick.”

Torstig's kulta scowled before snapping.

“Then Torstig needs to keep his greedy paws to himself.”

Lauri smiled, Torstig could never let things lie when he could stir them up, it was just the man's nature. The Atti came and reminded him that there were more things stirring and he gently tucked his precious one back in his bunk and strapped her in for the coming storm.

~0~

He'd fallen into his bunk wanting nothing more than to sleep for a week. He'd felt Yu gently pulling off his boots and tucking him in and cuddled the warm body of his treasure close. Lauri had buried his face in her hair and just slept.

So when Hwurr prodded him awake he was somewhat disturbed to wake alone.

Lauri swore under his breath and groped for his boots, but he didn't tie them after Ewie began sending happy thoughts, the kind he got when he found someone willing to feed him cheese. When those thoughts were followed by amusement Lauri swore and bolted for the stairs.

Amie was curled by the bow with her sister, Jussi was sitting near them his legs out in front of him and leaning back on his hands and Ewie looked like he was pondering if he could get away with hopping into Amie's lap or not.  
“Why do Ewie and Hwurr tell me I need to look out for my armas?” He knew his tone was a bit sharp but Jussi just leaned back on his hands a bit more and grinned impudently up.

“I was just making sure the pretties knew our names. Maybe then we won't have to tend to our healer after Torstig pisses his treasure off again.”

Lauri had to smile wryly at that sally. He'd been the one to wrap the poultice soaked bandages around Atti's ribs and kidneys. Torstig's prize flushed but refused to be cowed.

“Then he needs to get out of the way and not help that bloody bastard.”

Jyrki spoke up mildly defending Atti.

“Atti is our Healer. It is in his nature, just as it is in Sami's to tend to people.” The mild tone turned chiding. “Jussi, stop flirting.”

Lauri snorted when Jussi's face went all wounded innocence.

“I wasn't flirting.”

He wasn't either, he was just being cute and charming and winding up Jyrki. And from the sigh out of Jyrki the bigger man was well aware that his impish husband was up to his usual mischiefs. There was a squeal out of Jussi when Jyrki reached down and with a practiced yank had his young husband laid over his shoulder. Lauri was a bit envious, Jyrki was going to have his prize in their bunk and he couldn't do much more than cuddle into his as she slept.

Then he was reminded how fortunate he really was as Torstig came boiling up and with his usual lack of caution bounded over to Cherie to try and snuggle her.

His reward was to almost get his prizes shackles to the groin. His yelp and recoil had him landing hard on his hands and knees on the decking.

Lauri had to smile at how Torstig's put upon plaint only got an eye roll out of his Amie.

“What was that for? I just wanted a hug and a cuddle.”

Lauri snickered a bit as their brothers laughed at Toro's pleading. After all the teasing he'd served them on their bondings it was just retribution for him to get no sympathy whatsoever.

But his treasure looked unwell. He went to his knees so he could see her face more clearly.

“You are well?” He tried to keep from sounding to worried as she gave him a wan smile and waggled her hand in a so-so motion.

“The ship?”

She nodded, and Lauri was up and running for his bunk. Hwurr gronked at him in faint protest, but only spread his wings for balance and sank his talons into the padding on his tunic shoulder. Lauri grabbed his fur lined cloak and his cup and was running back to his treasure's side. She blinked at him as he wrapped the fur and wool around her shoulders and blinked again when he went to the tea bucket and dipped a cupful out to bring to her.

Atti must have planned for their captives to be awake and sea sick, today's tea with mint and chamomile.

“Little sips, I'll bring you more when you finish.” Then he tried to ease his worry by settling the cloak a bit more securely around her and singing softly the song to ease pain. He needed to remember to make a new kantele to make this kind of thing easier.

Ewie cocked his head and hopped closer, then boldly poked his head under a fold of the cloak. When all Amie did was stroke a tentative fingertip over his head he made a soft ratcheting sound and crawled right into her lap. Lauri had to smile, he knew his birds approved, one had watched over her sleeping even when he'd been guiding them through the storm. But having her like the birds back, well that was an unlooked for boon.

“Ewie,” he chided gently. “Don't go a begging, it's undignified.” Ewie blinked at him, gronked and snuggled in closer. His version of a childish 'so there.' Lauri smiled and switched languages so his Amie could understand him.

“You have a friend. If you feed and pet him you'll never be rid of him.” the words were affectionate. Ewie was more of a cat with wings, cuddly and affectionate. “His name is Ewie, he's the second of Othar's birds to lay claim to me. Hwurr was the first.” He nuzzled his face into the feathers of the bird still perched on his shoulder. He heard Hwurr sigh and felt that massive beak gently preening his hair. “Tlarr is flying high above us; he's keeping a watch to give us warning.”

“Warning of what?”

He shifted and settled her a bit closer, and sighed at Torstig's failing attempts to get cuddled close to his prize.

“This far out it would be bad weather, closer inshore, other raiders, settlements and hazards they can see under the water that we can't. Rocks and reefs and things.”

Then Torstig's prize was yelling

“And keep your hands to yourself!”

Torstig was curled on the deck whimpering and Mira was apparently deeply asleep in Sami's arms. Lauri grimaced, that meant she'd been difficult and Atti had drugged her again. Sami looked wistful as he brushed the escaped bits of hair away over and over as the wind kept blowing it back.

“Torstig never can let things be. And Sami, Sami has no idea what to do when his chosen won't even speak to him.”  
Amie gulped and turned her huge change color eyes to him.

“What are you going to do to us?”

“I would make you my wife. Torstig and Sami would wed your sisters.” Lauri shrugged a little, she wasn't going to believe him.

“Then why steal us? Why not go to Mother and ask?”

Lauri blinked in confusion. Ask for a wife? A man declared his intent to a girls father and the head of the Holding, he didn't ask.

“We always steal our wives. It's how we show we are serious. We set up a place, goods, fields and cattle, everything for a family, only then will we go and steal the one the gods have set for us to marry.”

“I don't believe you.”

Lauri sighed again in resignation. Battle brides never did believe they just wanted a wife and were Called by the gods to the proper one.

“No, southern girls never do. I don't know why your people don't do civilized raiding.”

~0~

When they got home he carried her up to the Holding as her legs trembled and tried to adjust for the rocking of a deck that was no longer under her feet. Lauri winced at Torstig getting left on his ass in the surf to watch Ylsa and Freyja leading his prize away and had to close his eyes when he heard Sami's pained voice begging his mother for help in making his Mira love him.

That was going to be a long and rather painful courtship unless he missed his guess.

Gently he laid his prize in his bed in the long house and tucked the blankets around her. Then he went and helped unload the Dragons and laid out his bedroll in the work area beside his bed. Amie tended to dump him out of his blankets in his sleep. She said because he pawed her in his sleep, and given he knew he cuddled and petted in his sleep Lauri knew he had no defense. So he'd sleep beside his bed rather than in his bed until she consented.  
Then he settled in to woo her properly. He brought her pretty ornaments, and gold rings to hold her hair. The gold looked better against her dark hair and pulled the threads of red and gold out of the long dark mass. Lauri stole a verse from Nikki's poem and combed out Amie's hair whenever he could in the mornings.

He laughed himself half sick when Petri and Juha made plays for Sami's prize. Petri would be covered in welts from the nettles for a week. Juha had looked so shocked when Mira had dumped that tub of filthy water over his head. When Mira had followed it up but dumping the tub over his head Lauri had sat down to keep from falling over in laughter. When she'd beaten the tub vigorously he'd just clutched his belly and howled.

But her words. Oh, by Othar's beard, her words.

Scaring the birds.

As if any bird would hang around after the racket of her beating that tub.

~0~

He felt like he'd taken a mace to the skull. He couldn't have just heard his Amie say that.

Lauri blinked.

She had said that. He could feel the weight of the torc around his neck.

Joy fizzed up out of him like Ylsa's best elderberry wine and he pounced his wife.

His. Wife.

She squealed as he bore her to the bedding, gasped when he yanked their clothing off with urgent glee and let out a moan that left him hard when he reached between her legs. He was so aroused he was half afraid he'd pop long before he brought her any pleasure if he tried having her now, so he used his fingers and then devoured her there with his mouth. She'd pulled his hair, writhed and cried his name; only then did he rise up and have her.

Entering her for the first time almost had him coming on the spot. Amie was so tight, so slick and so incredibly good.

He hung on long enough to make her scream his name again. But only just barely.

~0~

Now he understood why men would put up with so much from their wives. He'd always wondered why Uther and Wulf put up with their wives giving them their opinions unasked. Now he understood. Amie often knew what he was thinking, would ask a question to give him the insight he needed to solve a problem or would just be there for him to hold.  
Sami was sinking into a depression because his chosen was still fighting him. And now he felt his brother's pain. To love so much and have it refused as vehemently as Mira refused him was a knife in the heart every day.   
Torstig had finally hit a turning point. Not like Risto had, by standing between his Elsa and death, but by getting in the way of the biggest flirt in three Holdings.

Poor Ulstead had no idea what he'd stepped into when he'd flirted with Cherie. He'd back pedaled so fast it had set his shield brother laughing. Then Torstig had lurked by his Cherie until the trading party had gone home, it had been hysterical.

After that it was barely a week before the lovesick idiot followed her down to the creek where the women bathed. Lauri didn't know what happened, but had a suspicion as Cherie consented within a week.  
Mira though held out.

And when Lauri learned why he felt like an idiot. He'd seen Mira creeping out every full moon to visit Iriet's grove. Sami had been making offerings there and Lauri had heard the man begging the goddess to make his Mira love him.

But when Mira fell it made sense.

Sami had been courting a man. He asked Amie why she hadn't told him and she'd given him a look and replied it wasn't her secret to tell. Of course the fact he hadn't realized there was a man under that tunic after a good six months of sharing a longhouse with him, well it didn't reflect well on any of their observational skills.  
But the story the poor man had told. No wonder he'd been reluctant to let Sami near him. With a history like that most southerners would be making hex signs at the child's back and muttering about bad blood, assuming that they didn't just tie a stone to the boys neck and drop him in a bog.

What a horrible way to grow up, knowing your father and uncle had been oath breaking bastards. A tale like that would likely be sung at every major festival, people liked hearing of betrayers getting their due.

But the tale also solved a puzzle. Mira had pure silver hair, not white gold, silver. It was fully as long as his sisters, coming almost to his knees when unbound and he had a woman's slender throat and soft voice.

Iriet had laid Her hand on him. From the tale She might have laid Her hand on him at the very moment he was conceived.

And he'd never registered even the possibility. Mira just put a hand to his braid in shock and turned to Sami in confusion.

It was going to be interesting to see what the goddess had given her chosen.

Iriet was the goddess of hearth and home, wife of Othar and the protector of wives and children. Her creature was the cat, be it the common ones of the granary or the great hunting cats and her weapons were the sling and the bow. She held power over childbirth and the mists but her sister Alwe was the healer.

Lauri chewed his lip and nuzzled Amie's hair.

Mira had already proven to have extraordinary skill with a sling.

Amie had shrugged and told him Mira took turns minding their Holding's sheep and goats, and had taken up her and Cherie's shares of those duties when they proved unsuited.

Hwurr just clacked his beak at him and blinked his great yellow eyes.

He'd think about it later.

~0~

Toivo pondered and played an idle tune before he spoke.

“I think, I think I'd rather find my partner at one of the near Holdings.” The boy shook his head and had to reach up a hand to brush red gold hair out of his blue eyes. He was very much his mother's child, something a good many folk were grateful for. Another trickster child in the Holding would have been a bit much. Torstig had driven all the Holding wives to thoughts of murder more than once as they were growing up. If he hadn't been cute and charming Lauri was sure he'd have gotten drowned in frustration.

Lauri let out a little snicker, his son had said something similar about finding a spouse. But Mikko was already showing leanings toward the younger of a set of twins that had been left with them five summers ago. Wilhelm was showing signs of interest back and Elise was leading his older brother on a merry chase indeed.

Toivo smiled as he watched Mira scoop one of the Holding children up in his arms as he tried to toddle a bit to close to a fire pit.

Lauri looked at absently identified the child as Iason's youngest, Seppo was rather like Otto, Atti's eldest, fascinated by fire and the forge. Tahvo would be glad of another apprentice in a few more years. The Holding was prosperous and another smith would only aid that.

Toivo looked back at his father and Torstig suddenly went very still.

“Why am I an only child? Mikko has more siblings than he has fingers.”

Lauri winced at the exaggeration, but his Amie was prone to delivering twins. After Mikko and Elise she'd brought two more sets into the world, eight children in five pregnancies had guests looking at him with some awe. That five of those eight had at least one raven following them around, and two with two, and Elise with three, had men muttering about Raven Skald virility. That the other three had cats, Mikko one of the great hunting cats didn't help.

Lauri reached a comforting hand over to Torstig.

He'd wanted more little ones. But he wanted his wife more.

~0~

Torstig held his son in his arms and tried not to cry. Cherie was alive, she would recover, but he could never get her pregnant again. Ylsa said it was vanishingly unlikely he would ever get her with child again, but he was terrified. He looked down at his beloved wife's face as she slept. She looked so frail, so exhausted, and when he'd burst back into the longhouse to get to her side there had been so much blood.

He didn't understand how she could still be here with him there had been so much blood.

But he was grateful. His armas, his golden treasure was alive.

He held his tiny son a little tighter and pressed his lips into the tousled wisps of red gold hair that already covered that tiny skull.

How could he risk his Cherie?

~0~

Tradition decreed at least a two week wait after the birth of a child before a man could have his wife again. Mostly to ensure things had healed up properly and to give the woman a chance to properly bond to her little one.  
Risto had sidestepped that stricture by pleasuring his wife with his mouth and his hands and Elsa had returned the favor even to tormenting him by tying him down so she could suckle him properly.

Lauri had done something similar, but it was a spreading joke that if you ever wanted the Raven Skald for something you needed to find his wife first. If he wasn't with her he would be soon.

But Torstig was in agony. I wanted his wife, craved her but knew his own impulse control was rather low. If he touched her he'd need to have her and if he had her she might get pregnant again.

And if she got pregnant again he'd lose her.

Now he understood Jonne's cryptic comments about devils bargains.

Ylsa tried explaining things again when Cherie began getting frustrated with him, but he'd just given her a lost look.

He held her tight but when the need got to much he'd creep off and offer his seed to Iriet.

He couldn't lose his wife.

After three weeks she started getting frustrated with him, but he still was to afraid to give in.

He'd been helping repair horse gear when she'd finally lost patience with him and come looking for her due.  
He'd just set down the knife when she pounced him. Torstig had let out an embarrassingly high pitched yelp and flailed awkwardly to his feet as Cherie hauled him up by a fistful of his hair. She was moving fast enough all he could do was flail and stagger behind her as she dragged him back toward the longhouse.

He'd heard her snarl 'you, bed, now' and heard his brothers breaking up with delighted laughter but hadn't made sense of things before Cherie all but threw him into their bed.

Torstig tried protesting, but Cherie was determined and he broke almost immediately.

Afterwards he'd held her and fretted.

What if?

~0~

He thought he was going to die. His wife had pounced him again, and this time had just yanked his trews down and mounted him where he lay in the grass of the meadow. He'd barely blinked the haze of a good orgasm from his eyes when he realized his teacher, the Skald Seppo was standing over him with the men his Holding leader sent with him when he went traveling.

Seppo looked profoundly amused, the only thing different about this tryst was he wasn't fourteen, this girl was his wife and there was more gray in Seppo's beard.

Weakly, but as properly as he could given the situation, he hailed his teacher.

Cherie squeaked and buried her face in his chest in embarrassment.

It was rather mortifying.

And the lecture he got as they walked down to the Holding. Torstig kept shooting his wife pleading looks, in spite of her embarrassment she was taking far to much pleasure in watching him wriggle.

~0~

Of course Seppo was here to see if the rumors of a female chosen by Othar's ravens was true.

And of course no one bothered to warn anyone and Mira had acted with the same protectiveness he had with his sisters and stepped between the Skald and Amie's children.

And that got one of Seppo's guards into annoyed defensive mode.

Torstig had groaned when the man backhanded Mira. He didn't need to look to know it would take at least two men to keep Sami from demanding an apology. But Seppo had caught his man's sleeve and with a look Torstig knew all to well got his man to back down.

But then Mira had locked eyes with the man and he'd gone dead white.

And no one could figure out why.

A few weeks after Seppo arrived back in his Holding a messenger came with a small but heavy sealed chest for Mira and he'd been confused.

Torstig though suspected what was in it. And when the lid was turned back and he saw Sami's little nod he knew for sure.

Wulfric was sending an apology for his insults.

Torstig just found it amusing that the amber beads got used more as a teething aid than as regular ornaments. And given how hard it was to find green amber that clear and that large, well it wasn't to surprising that the visitors they got after that tended to give Mira a second look.

But he'd also sat down and talked to Ylsa, Freyja and his brother's new wife, Tash.

It broke his heart all over again.

His Chrerie would never carry another child.

There were things he could do, and now that he was listening he learned them. Denying his wife only made them both suffer, and Cherie was stubborn. She was more than stubborn enough to tie him to his bed and have him. And he'd already seen the sly grins his brothers were giving him. When he saw the shackles Cherie had gotten Tahvo to make for her he'd gulped and gone along quietly.

Then he learned that Sami and Atti had sunk a heavy bolt through their bed and deep into the stone under the longhouse.

Once she had those shackles on him and them secured to that bolt he was helpless.

So he learned to writhe and to beg.

And once Cherie turned him loose he'd returned the favor.

~0~

Toivo considered.

And then nodded and smiled the smile that always hit Torstig near to his heart. His son smiled just like his mother.

When the boy ran off to put his kantele away so he could go learn seamanship from Jyrki all Torstig could do was watch and offer a silent but heartfelt prayer to Iriet.

Please let his little boy find a wife. Let him not have the trials he'd had winning his Cherie. And please, please let there be fat happy grandchildren for his Cherie to love.


	15. A Mother's Musings

Cherie managed a faint fond smile for her husband as he boggled at their son. She assumed he was asking the same question most of the Holding boys were. Calling bond questions were common in boys their age and from the way Torstig's mobile face was moving through expressions the questions were calling up memories.  
Beside her she heard a rather rude snort, and turned to look.

Linke was doing his level best to not break up in laughter. But as far as she had seen Linke was firmly attached to one of his crewmen, the rather pretty cook whose name she still hadn't gotten quite straight even after all these years. Linke used numerous pet names for the man, most commonly 'kompassi' which she'd heard other men call their mates. Even Torstig called her his light and compass after a long voyage.

Cherie rolled her eyes when she saw behind Linke's shoulder little Toumas facing down Sami with an intent and far to serious look on his young face. Clearly he and his brother had decided now was a good time to learn how two Called men had two children.

She really didn't envy Sami that explanation. And from the wide eyed stare and frantic glances Sami really wasn't looking forward to telling the child who wore a face almost identical to his beloved that he'd been a product of a woman raping his father, and his brother was as well. Eicca was normally the more protective of the two, given he took after Sami to a degree that Cherie knew in a few years would be disturbing.

Sami's mother said Eicca looked just like Sami had as a young man. At least Toumas had the distinction that he wore his hair just past his shoulders and not in a knee length braid like Mira did. Once Eicca finished growing she had no doubts folk would reach for the shoulder of one and get the other, at least until Sami began to finally go gray.

She tried to stop the giggles when she heard Tash scolding Atti for telling lies to Otto. Even after all this time the pair had never settled into calling each other by name outside the privacy of their own bed.

Atti had thumped a round dozen would be wife thieves for their presumption, after laughing himself half stupid at the way Tash dealt with the poor young idiots. Most just slunk off in embarrassment after Tash was done calling them idiots, only a few persisted enough for Atti to step in.

Linke saw the direction of her stare and smiled his odd, slightly crooked grin.

“Ah, it is that time of year then.” He lot out a low rude snort of laughter. “And Atti demonstrates that a wise man knows when to just get out of the way of a determined woman.”

Cheri swatted at him, knowing he would duck away long before her half hearted swat came anywhere near him.  
“You make us sound so vicious.”

Linke turned to her and for once his eyes were quite serious.

“You can be. And a wise man never puts himself in a position where he's between a woman and what she loves. Mamman killed three men with a pot before being cut down. Aiti stepped between Toro and I and a boar once. It's something proper mothers do.”

Cherie narrowed her eyes. It sounded like Linke was talking about a birth mother and a foster mother. She hadn't known Linke wasn't born here. But she was distracted when Linke's partner came up with a bit of fresh bread and a bowl of soup to share.

She sighed as she watched a head of fine brown hair and a head of black bent over the same dish. Those two were just terribly cute. She sighed again at the feel of Ewie settling on her shoulder and the little tug of him nibbling a bit of her hair with his beak.

“Glutton,” she teased fondly poking the bird in the belly as she went off in search of a meal for herself and Lauri.

~0~

Winter raiding came again, and Cherie swallowed hard when she saw Toivo stepping up with Eicca and Toumas to go on their first raids.

He was almost fifteen. A man in all things but raiding and a wife.

It took everything she had to not break down weeping as she wrapped her little boy, now taller than her in a warm cloak and made sure he had his spear, sword and shield.

She let out a tiny squeak when Amie's oldest twins both stepped out onto the boat.

Elise held up a hand for one of her birds and the small bit of grumbling died down. She and Mikko might both have turned out rather short but no one meddled with Amie's eldest daughter, her temper had proved as formidable as her aim with a bow.

But she worried.

And would worry until they came home.

~0~

Nine weeks of worry, almost fifty days of looking out past the walls of the fjord and seeing only sea and sky and she finally heard the call of 'sail' go up.

Like the other mothers who had untried youngsters out she ran down to the beach and waited.

Her hands clutched at her cloak as the three dragons slid neatly side on to the docks.

Jyrki and Jussi were easily visible, Atti looked tired, Sami frustrated and Mira amused.

Torsig demonstrated that he could still be an idiot as he leapt the gap between boat and dock to fling his arms around her and carry her on a few dizzying spins through the air.

His whisper about a treasure of blood made no sense until she saw her baby boy shaking his red gold hair out of his face and smiling over at her, a wrapped bundle cradled gently in his arms.

She throat closed over a little when she realized several of the men carried similar small bundles and that Atti was grabbing for a larger, mobile one.

Children. They'd found children.

Toivo carried his bundle over and waited to walk the ramp to the dock rather than jump the gap like so many of the men did.

“Aiti, I want you to meet your grandson.” He pulled a bit of the cloth around the baby back and showed her a sleeping child with hair so black it shone like Ewie and Hwurrs wings. “His mother is below, Atti says she'll recover.”

Cherie blinked.

Her baby had brought home a baby. She automatically cradled the little one close.

Her eyes tracked over to where Wulf was carefully cradling a larger bundle wrapped securely in Toivo's cloak. The woman, more girl really, was limply asleep and clearly hadn't been well by how painfully thin her face was. Like the baby her hair was raven wing black and her skin painfully pale.

The girl rouses a bit as she was carefully passed from Wulf's arms to Toivo and fretted until she could see her son.

Cherie had to smile weakly as Toivo soft reassured the girl in lilting Trade that the baby was with his mother. Her smile warmed at the dubious look the girl gave Toivo when he called the child 'their' son.

“Can you stand.”

The girl nodded and after a woebegone look Toivo obeyed the implied request and set the girl on her feet.

~0~

“Do they always steal their women?”

Cherie sighed and rolled her eyes. Magda wasn't sure she trusted any of the Holding's men. She'd tolerate a great deal, but trust was harder to come by.

“They do have that habit.”

The girl was watching Toivo cradling her son with dark eyes and a pensive look.

“So why take the children? The elders threw us out as calling to evil spirits.”

Cherie had learned a bit of how the raiding ships had come back with children, but no tales of battles, only of trade. And from what she'd learned they'd come across a young woman with three dozen odd toddlers and young children, all orphaned in some of calamity, exactly what she hadn't yet learned.

“Because Lauri and Torstrig would sing the spirits lost to have new blood for the Holding.” from the way the girl's eyes lit she knew that had tripped a memory.

“He,”her chin jerked at Toivo, “was always singing over me, unless he was singing Irham to sleep. Where is his first wife then?”

Cherie smiled, she'd seen the torc of seaweed and otters around Magda's neck.

“He means to make you his first wife.”

The sudden silence had Cherie looking at the poor girl, who was frozen staring at her in complete shock.  
“But I am a widow, with only one son! Why should he take such as me when there are untouched about?”

This conversation left her feeling very strange. It reminded her of one she'd had with Freya, years and years ago, when she had been the confused stolen wife.

No wonder the women born to a Holding had looked so amused.

The Fates so loved their twists.

Cherie tried to explain, while trying to keep the laughter at the twist in her fate down where Magda wouldn't see it.

It didn't help that Tomas was trying to act all big and bold for Elise while Toumas, Mikko and Wilhelm watched with amusement. Eicca must still have been hauling wood of he'd have been with his brother and shield brother.

~0~

Cherie watched.

Her baby had brought home a wife and baby. It was taking a bit of adjustment.

Torstig was over the moon, and took great glee in the telling of the tale of how his son had found his wife.  
He'd tripped over her while finding a place to pee.

Literally.

And sick with hunger and thirst, shivering with cold, she'd still tried to brain him with a rock to defend her child and the little ones with her.

At least Toivo had more sense than his father and had ducked. His second action had been to wrap her up in his cloak and yell for his brothers, father and uncles. His third had all the skalds looking at him more carefully as he'd sung a targeted song of calming that had put the girl and all the children into a trance like sleep, unfortunately it had also caught the only other female in the party.

Elise had kicked him in the shin when she'd awakened from the induced sleep and yelled at him for not being more careful in his parameters for the spell. Even T'tick pecking her until she bled hadn't been enough to keep her awake.

It left her with food for thought

It also quieted the mutters about a skald child not being a skald himself.

Otto had been rather blunt in defense of his shield brother, and had left Torstig torn between taking offense and laughing himself sick.

Had they really expected Toivo to be a copy of his father? He'd already shown he had the good sense of his mother and none of the hyper insanity that characterized the elder skald.

It had nearly made her cry.

Physically no one could deny that Toivo was Torstig's son. He might have her red gold hair and blue eyes, but his face and body clearly bore the stamp of his father.

Her son.

Her only precious child.

Who was cradling a sleeping child in his arms and laughing at Tomas finally realizing he was outmatched and starting to run away from an annoyed Elise.

Then she blinked.

Mikko and Wilhelm were cuddled together in a very cosy manner, both stroking free hands over the soft fur of Mikko's great cat's.

She searched for her sister.

Amie was watching her eldest with a peculiar look in her eyes.

Like she too had just realized her babies were growing up.

She wondered if the priestesses on the island they'd called home had ever looked on the girls and suffered a mothers musings, wondered where they would be in a few years time.

Cherie sighed and leaned into the strong arms that wrapped around her, secure in the knowledge that it was Torstig.  
“Our son has a wife,” he sounded so happy. So sure Magda would succumb to the quiet but warm nature of their only child.

Who was she to doubt, she'd succumbed to Torstig.

She closed her eyes and snuggled into the arms of her husband.


	16. My Brother's Child

Linke wanted to laugh.

Franky, bless his gentle heart, had gone running for the ship the instant Toivo had begun yelling.  
Of all the ignominious ways to find a wife.

They'd been stopped to do a bit of trade and a bit of scouting for a possible raid of another place and Toivo had gone off into the weed and scrub to urinate and tripped over something. A frail looking female something that even half frozen and clearly more than half starved had grabbed a rock and tried to club the poor boy senseless.  
At least the boy had good reflexes; he'd ducked, sensibly yelled his head off and then skipped right to trying to sing the girl and the collection of toddlers around her calm.

Elise was going to be months in forgiving him. Her eyes had gone round, T'tick had let out a loud startled gronk and pecked her sharply and she'd folded to the ground. If Jyrki had been any slower Atti would have been treating the girl for a wicked headache.

At least that trick would silence all the folk who looked at a skalds son who wasn't a skald himself. The boy had the talent clearly, or he wouldn't have been able to manage that trick.

But Franky was back, with an armload of soft woolen blankets to wrap the children up in, so Linke grabbed a few and began helping wrap the far too thin little ones in protective warmth before handing them off to be carried back to the ships.

The girl had one child tied in a rough sling to her back, and from the inky black hair Linke suspected this was her own child.

He frowned and shared a look with his lover as they began tallying up how many little ones there were.

Far too many little ones. All of them far too thin and too young to be of much use to any slaver.

It left him a very bad feeling. Either these few were the survivors of some kind of raid or they'd been cast out for some reason.

Lauri had clearly had a similar thought and had begun singing a powerful spirit cleansing chant over the sleeping toddlers already on deck.

Torstig looked torn between helping Lauri and helping his son with his unexpected prize.

Linke cocked his head to one side and leaned into Franky's comforting warmth as he watched Toivo go through a mental struggle of his own. He sighed and carefully took the baby and let his father take the girl.

~0~

Linke had been comfortably snuggled down in a shared bunk, plundering his favorite treasure when the girl woke with an unholy shriek.

Franky whimpered and tugged Linke's hair as his manhood had instantly drooped at the scream. Linke grumbled but moved up to cradle his love in his arms and glared in the general direction of the screaming and shouting.

Why did she have to wake right then? They'd almost been finished.

A yelp from Toivo and Linke let out a few choice swear words that set Franky giggling weakly.  
“She's not happy to be shackled.”

“They never are,” Linke responded dryly. A soft snort of amusement escaped as he watched Toivo ducking as he tried to explain to a girl who was very clearly not listening.

“He's better at dodging than Toro was with Cherie at least,” observed Franky mildly.

“He's also not being a demanding slattern either,” agreed Linke as he watched the girl back Toivo down the narrow hallway toward the steps. Several other men were watching with amusement from their bunks but no one moved to intervene.

It was a disagreement between a man, however young, and his wife.

Toivo finally was able to wrap his arms securely around her when she slipped trying to kick him. With her back held tight to his chest he whispered softly in her ear as she struggled and swore at him.

Linke snickered and caught a little bark of laughter from the bunk across from he and Franky. Yu looked quietly amused; Julian had both hands clamped over his mouth to keep his laughter inside.

“Creative language?”

Julian's stifled giggles got worse and he nodded enthusiastically.

Yu shrugged.

“Not see how cow and horse with no hump make Toivo not a good man.” He shrugged again and cuddled Julian as Franky processed exactly what the Picti meant and broke up in helpless giggles of his own.

Linke felt his face slide into a lopsided grin and decided to stifle his own impeding laughter by kissing Franky breathless.

Franky didn't seem to mind at all from how he buried his hand in Linke's hair and pulled.

~0~

Night on the open sea was sometimes purest misery if the weather was foul. But tonight it was clear as far as the eye, human or raven, could see and the stars were brilliant pin pricks in the velvet of the sky.

Linke sighed in quiet content and leaned his back against the stern railing and cuddled Franky closer into his arms. Seated safe on the decking he had no fear of Franky startling and sending them both over the side like he might do if they stood.

Like he had done before, Linke smiled faintly at the memory of their first night as husbands and how if not for Shin's sharp ears and David's quick thinking they might well have both gone to Othar's hall for a simple drowning accident. But his ship brothers had spun their dragon about on her keel and gotten a line to Linke and dragged them both out, sopping wet, chilled and mortified but otherwise unhurt.

He had better memories of that night, when Franky had clung to him to warm up, and after the shivering stopped had been eager to take the kisses and touches he'd been skittish on before. Linke still carried a single scar from that night, where Franky had raked his hand down Linke's spine in his passion.

Atti had been livid when he saw the wound, had dosed it liberally with the smelly pastes that fought infection and all but tied him to a bed. Franky had been apologetic and had stayed cuddled up beside Linke at night while the fevers burned out of his body.

Ulwer and Karle had been pleased to see their foster son home with a spouse.

Linke's eyes closed briefly in remembered pain. The winter after he'd brought Franky home Ulwer had contracted a winter fever and in spite of all of Atti's skill he'd coughed his life out. Karle had tried to go on for her sons, but had gradually wasted away. In spring both had been laid side by side in a grave to walk into Othar's hall together.

He had no doubts that Ulwer had stayed his crossing until his wife was with him.

Linke looked over at Toivo as he whispered to his wife. She was at least listening now, and not trying to bite the arms that held her.

It made him wonder at what his foster parents would have thought of the wife Torstig brought home, and how proud they would have been of their grandson.

“You're brooding again,” teased Franky.

Linke opened his mouth to protest he'd just been thinking but any protest came out in a strangled yelp as Franky slid down his body and began returning earlier oral favors.

He didn't have the breath or the wits to protest, to caught by the clever mouth of his love on his cock.

~0~

Magda scowled at the men who had swept her up and onto their boats. Glared blackly at the way they cradled the children and frowned as each child found a caretaker that watched over them like a proper parent.

She hadn't been so lucky. Her father had no use for another daughter and had sold her as a servant to the first man who could pay. That man had a son only a few years older than her who had desired a lover.

She'd been fool enough to believe his promises of wedlock. When her belly got big the yelling had started, but the sickness of boils had started too, so she had been kept as a hard worker until her son was born. Magda stroked a light fingertip over Irham's sleeping face. All the children slept much, but Atti and Tash said it was them recovering from the weeks of near starvation.

She'd tried so hard to keep them all fed, even sick as she was with the birthing of her own child. Her master had listened to the high elders of the village and she had been thrown out with every orphan child who had shown no signs of the sickness. Foolishness, all but the very smallest had given suck of mother's who had suffered the illness and recovered. That was the magic that a woman nursing could work, to make her newborn immune to anything she had sickened with herself. How it was her fault the lying son a sow that was Irham's sire had sickened she had no idea.

At least they hadn't burned her as a witch. She'd have been no use for finding food as a spirit. She tried to keep her vengeful thoughts to hoping the fool son of her master had just been rendered not so handsome and not that he'd died. Wishing for ill like that tended to get you angry spirits hovering around.

She frowned at the one pair of men who seemed intent on each other in their shared bed.

That she found more than passing strange. Her father had beaten one of her brothers to death for accepting the touch of another man just to his thigh. Here they could do considerably more than just touch.

In fact she'd caught the one who bleached two stripes in his hair to look like a badger’s back and the pretty little blond doing a good bit more than touching in one of the horse barns. She didn't have much of the language yet but it had sounded like he was begging and from the way he had been clutching the other man it wasn't begging him to stop.

She'd fled the barn, he cheeks burning and all but run over her own personal tormentor.

He'd yelped and when they fell and twisted to take the worst of the fall himself, so she'd had a moment to just look down at him as he caught his breath again.

Red gold hair that would have gotten his father extra silver from any slaver, sky blue eyes and clear skin. He was taller than her, but only a little older.

Then she was distracted from her observations by another male pair. The one called Linke carrying his brown haired partner over his shoulder.

His squealing and laughing partner over his shoulder.

“Why is such a thing permitted?” She flushed when she realized she asked that question aloud.

“The gods set forth a calling, and wise men answer it.”

Magda watched the taller man carrying his, whatever he was, toward a longhouse doorway.

“Calling?”

Toivo sat up and braced on his arms, letting her stay mostly settled on his legs.  
“The gods ask the Norns who is our best match. And when we see them the Calling spins the threads of our lives together.”

She slanted a dubious look at him.

“So you tripping over me was fated by your gods.”

The sunny smile was an answer in itself. She was still curious how two men were Called together.

“So how did those two end up together?” She was curious, and a distraction would be good to divert away from the warm lump she felt pressing into her hip.

“If memory serves,” he started, and she was learning he had a very sharp memory, but she still settled in to hear the tale.

~0~

 _Linke much preferred being a trader to being a raider, not that given an appropriately rich prize guarded by idiots he would pass up a good raid._

 _Or in this case, pass up on a set of raiders being idiots and rob them of their ill gotten gains._

 _He had an odd crew, comprised of men from several Holdings. Almost all of them had been stolen children or foundlings of some flavor. Shin could navigate on a cloudy night almost as well as any other navigator could navigate on a clear one. He'd been Called to a quiet fisherman who had an instinct for threading the shallow and braided waterways of their homeland and between the two his Dragon had never run aground without them intending to.  
This lot of raiders was in hide covered boats, made to roughly the same shape as a dragon, but far and away smaller in size. Linke's Dragon could carry forty men at need but only needed ten to man her. These hide dinghy's could only carry five or six men._

 _It looked like they'd raided and come away a little way to count out and divide their plunder.  
If not for Gustav's had on his elbow Linke might well have gone over the side when he saw one of the captives. A pretty young man with soft brown hair and a torn tunic._

 _As it was he was held back, given a hard shake and able to get ahold of himself enough to plan out a counter raid.  
Little Kiro had tied tight packed packets of Jan's latest experiment to his arrows, Juri , Shin and Rom ad armored up and helped Linke with his scale and the four of them had trusted their smaller friends to wreck havoc from afar.  
Only one in three of Jan's little experiments had exploded like planned, all had burned and at least let off a good loud pop, but only a third had done any of the expected damage._

 _That was enough. Enough to scatter the raiders enough that they could be cut down as they fled. More than enough to allow a very small group to sweep in and gather up what they'd taken and carry it off before the survivors could regroup and try to counter attack._

 _Timo, David and Lu had been less than pleased to have been awakened by Jan's little toys and not by their brothers letting them know what was afoot. But when they saw how carefully Linke was cradling a pretty captive they settled to some degree._

 _Full shares of a small but very rich bit of plunder also helped. Not that Linke would have ever considered refusing them full share._

~0~

Magda stared after the pair in consideration. Then started when she felt Toivo move.

“You're shivering.”

She started to push him away, then hesitated.

Hesitated long enough for him to get to his feet and sweep her up in his arms.

“I have feet you great lummox,” she snapped.

“That never stops any of them,” came a mild observation from the one man here who truly confused her. His smile was soft and his green eyes amused as Toivo settled her down by a fire and wrapped his own cloak around her shoulders.

This man left her confused, not just because he was attached to another man and not just because two young men called him papa while they called his partner father. He wore his hair in a knee length braid of fine silver and had ornaments of silver, emerald and black pearl twined into it, as many ornaments as the older women around the fires.

“Then why,”

The smile made her swallow the rest of the question.

“Why let them get away with it?” The smile made her heart hurt, Mother had smiled like that at her birth father. “We do because we love them.”

Magda considered then asked,

“Were you stolen?”

The round of chuckles made her wince, but the man just smiled again and handed her a bowl full of soup.

“Oh yes. I was stolen, and came kicking, screaming and biting just like my sisters did. But Sami never did anything to hurt me other than snatch me away from all I knew.”

Magda gulped, the bigger man looked like he could snap his partner like a twig, and could have used his strength to demand anything he liked. Then she saw how the big man looked at his slimmer partner and realized something.  
The big man was hopelessly besotted with his lover.

She looked around the central cooking area.

One of the healers was growling at her husband but she still was staying still for him to braid strands of tiny amber beads into her dark hair and stroked over his cheek with tender affection. The quiet steersman was sharing cup and bowl with his blockier dark haired partner. A slender and rather outlandishly dressed man was settled by the feet of another with long black hair and a rich deep voice.

Her eyes skipped to a different part of the clearing. A man with clear golden hair was fussing at his wife and getting swatted, at least at first.

Everywhere her eyes skipped she saw at least one pair. And from everything she could see they were clearly devoted to each other. Even the one who was scolding her husband for being foolish even as he grinned like a boy caught in a prank at her.

Then Toivo was back at her knee, offering a finely carved spoon so she could do more than drink the broth from the bowl of soup.

A moment later and he was combing out her hair.

For now she'd allow it.

~0~

She'd spent days listening and watching. Toivo treated her son like his own child, giving him a bit of cloth wrapped around some snow to chew as he cut his first teeth and singing to him as he fretted and drooled.

The men who had brought her here all seemed tremendously pleased that several of the children were cutting teeth and she saw something that made her blink.

They gave gifts to the child, rings of ivory and amber, lengths of fine cloth and soft furs.

All to a child who was too young to care for something perfectly ordinary, something all children did if they lived long enough.

Even the ones who had taken in a child gave gifts to other children.

It left her terribly confused.

Toivo's soft explanation made no sense.

Why would they shower a child with gifts to show how they were valued when they still might not live to adulthood?  
These Northmen were a lot of lunatics.

~0~

“If it helps they do it partly in the belief that an unvalued child's soul lingers and in its hurt and pain makes people sick.”

Magda blinked at the brown haired mans soft words.

“Uh.”

“I'm Franky, Linke's husband.”

“He calls you husband?” Magda flinched, that had been terribly rude. The warm smile was only faintly reassuring.  
“He calls me his husband, and if I let him would bury me in my weight in silver and gold.”

“But you won't?”

The smile went sheepish.

“I can't swim very well, and have fallen overboard a few times. Better to not tempt the fates.”

Magda gaped for a moment. A man who spent his life on a boat couldn't swim. She blinked and began looking more carefully at this man.

His clothing was fine linen and wool embroidered with bright and complex patterns in what had to be silk thread, his soft brown hair was tied back and held by a ring of red gold set with garnets and amber and the torc around his neck was gold with wild abstract wind patterns accented with more garnet and with terminal ends studded with amber pieces the size of a small egg.

If what she'd been piecing together was at all accurate he was dressed as a man of wealth and status. Mira, the one who confused her so badly, might prefer to wear gray but even his clothing was fine silk, linen and wool and was heavily decorated with complex embroidery. His braid was weighted down with finely made ornaments and he had a queen's dower worth of jewels in a fine chest.

She considered. Toivo was doing his best to shower her with fine gifts; the torc she wore was decorated in seaweed, fish and playful otters, the eyes bright chips of amber. He hadn't covered her with as many ornaments as the other women, and many men wore, but the more she looked at things the more she suspected that was simply that he hadn't had the time to accumulate the pretty things that the other men had.

She blinked again when Linke slipped up behind his, his husband and dropped a kiss behind his ear and murmured words that made her chest hurt from the level of affection in them.

Atti had been resigned when she'd shown troubles keeping Irham fed. Tash had swatted him and tried a few tisanes but nothing was helping up production so she was forced to wean her son early. And to her shock Toivo took to helping feed her little one his mush and gruel.

Right now Toivo held Irham in his arms and was singing the fussy child to sleep.

She looked back at Linke and Franky, then over over at where Toivo's mother and father were huddled over one of the little ones she'd tried so hard to keep alive.

Then she looked back at Toivo as he sang and fingered the cloth sack that held the mate to the torc she wore.  
She'd have to consider this.s


	17. My Brothers Keeper

Wilhelm tried not to giggle at Tomi being silly and Elise getting annoyed enough to swat him. Her birds weren't dive bombing him so she was just annoyed and not truly angry.

He knew Elise was less than happy with Toivo right now, and had heard the story from several perspectives. The girl he'd brought back was pretty enough he supposed, not as pretty as Elise or anything, but Elise was just waiting for Tomas to add up the silver in his head and come to the understanding she was waiting for him.

Wilhelm shivered again and wistfully wished for the thousandth time that the poisoning that had brought them here hadn't left him horribly sensitive to the winter’s cold bite.

A warm fur lined clock was wrapped around his shoulders and Wilhelm blinked in surprise.

Mikko, Elise's twin was settling down beside him with two mugs of the hot winter tea Tash had been brewing by the vat to keep winter born sickness at bay. Mikko great cat settled down to half curl around them both lending his furry warmth to both of them.

Wilhelm smiled and accepted one mug without prompting.

There was no point is wishing that their father had returned for them like he'd promised.

~0~

Tomas knew that look, Wilhelm was thinking about their father. He was torn between feeling relived that Mikko had diverted him and frowning blackly at the other boy.

The frown eventually won.

Mikko was sharing a cloak with Wilhelm and had that furry monster he called a cat curled up around them. Worse their heads were close together and...

Tomas jerked in shock.

Mikko had just kissed his brother.

“Interrupt them and I'll drown you.”

Tomas spun in place and gaped at Elise. He started to open his mouth to protest but stopped when he saw how serious she was.

“But,”

Elise swatted him but left him time enough to duck.

“Idiot. Mikko is Called.”

Tomas spluttered, then let out a squeak when Elise let out an exasperated sigh, grabbed his ears and kissed him soundly before walking away.

He found himself sitting on his butt in the snow trying to figure out which way was up.

Wilhelm was so going to laugh and tell him that he’d been a blind idiot all this time.

Once he got his breath back he went charging after her.


	18. Meeting the Family

Ville gulped, this was the part that scared the ever loving life out of him.

He'd never expected to be Called to a spouse, he'd been dutiful and fathered children and did his level best to provide for all three of them even if the mothers really would rather he just went away. But now he had been Called.

His younger brother had already almost fallen off his horse laughing. Jhano had always teased him that his love of women would come back and bite him.

Clearly the gods had a wicked sense of humor.

He'd been called to a man

A man with dark curls and bright blue eyes.

A man with an impish streak wider than the sea and a level of fearlessness that was already giving Ville gray hair.

A man who until Ville had set the torc with swirls of stylized wind around his neck had worn the bronze collar of a thrall; and had come captive with Iason's battle bride so had not yet even acquired the language fully.

Brandon was going to make his heart stop in fright before they ever got back to the Holding.

~0~

Ville was unhappy with something. Brandon could tell, and whatever it was had him rattled enough that even Brandon trying to balance standing on his saddle wasn't doing more than making him sigh and close his eyes.  
He dropped back into the saddle, yelped in pain and had to clutch at the pommel to keep from falling out of the saddle entirely. A move that had the men reeling in their saddles laughing.

Ville just winced and reached out a hand to steady his husband.

He had to smile when Brandon leaned into his touch and turned to smile up at him even though his eyes were still watering from the pain of him squashing his own balls.

Ville stomped hard on the desire to kiss away those tears.

But then they were getting hailed by the Holding's outermost guardians.

Ville winced.

His father and mother would be waiting for them.

~0~

Brandon wasn't quite sure what to expect.

Jhano found him amusing, but the younger brother of the man he'd fallen head over heels in love with wasn't quite the same as his parents.

Brandon fidgeted a bit behind Ville as they walked into the center of a Holding laid out very much like the one he'd just come from.

The people here though wore shorter tunics, and several of the women wore boots just like the men did, testament to how many made their living's by the horses that he'd seen grazing under protective guard.

Brandon gulped when they stopped.

The central longhouse, and by the door he could see a man who clearly was Ville's father.

“Hail Jyrki, son of Kari.”

The man didn't crack a smile as he looked down at his son.

“Hail my son. And who is this you have brought?”

Brandon gulped again and lifted his chin as he took a step forward.

“I'm Bam.”

He could hear the snickers from the men that Ville rode with and the faintly pained sigh from Ville.

He must have just stomped all over another convention.

~0~

Leya covered her smile with both hands. This little man child was simply darling, he'd stepped forward and put Ville behind him. Ville she could tell was mortified at his little one's lack of formal manners, but the fact he'd answered in Trade told her he hadn't been in a Holding long enough to get enough Soumi to answer without sounding like a child.

He was also clearly nervous and trying very hard to hide it.

Jyrki sighed and stared down his nose at the much shorter man.

Leya struggled to keep her giggles inside when the two exchanged a long look. Bam lifted his chin and squared his shoulders.

“You aren't taking Ville away from me.”

Ville boggled, gaped and ended up with his face in his hands, his ears burning red.

Jyrki's stone faced 'stern parent' act fell apart into delighted chortles.

Leya pounced the poor thing and all but dragged him to the cook fires to pry every last detail out of him while Jyrki grilled Ville over how things were going at Uther's Holding.

~0~

Jyrki gave his wife a long second look.

“The boy has been there how long?”

“Less than a season. He was taken as a Thrall when one of their warriors found himself a battle bride.”

Jyrki scrubbed at his face.

“No wonder he's a menace.”

“He'd be a menace anyway, pure mischief that boy. But he means well and Olaf says he's doing well enough with the horses, so it's not like he's utterly useless.” Leya let out a snort. “Not like Ivar's latest conquest. She can't even spin.”

Jyrki winced. His sister's son had an eye for beauty, unfortunately it was almost never paired with sense or skills of any sort.

At least none of the girls Ivar brought home were his true Called spouse and they could be traded off once they'd gotten some training.

But a woman who couldn't spin? That would take some work, even with the girl in question being a stunning beauty with clear blue eyes and flaxen hair. She was about as clever as a box of rocks and twice as dense.

Ville's husband might be mischief incarnate but he at least was quick and clever and willing to turn his hand to anything to help.

Not that he could spin either, but Jyrki trusted him to at least try and learn if it was asked of him.

~0~

Bam let out a low whimper. Ville was teasing him with light touches and sharp little nips.

Ville called it language lessons.

Bam called it sweet torment.

And until he could beg in his husbands mother tongue he would lie here hands tied to a post near the head of their bed and writhe as Ville fondled, licked, nipped and kissed him without granting him any relief.

He learned to swear quickly enough, the rest was a bit hit or miss, mostly miss. It was a good thing he didn't need language to be able to help take down an elk or to fish.

Bam did his best, and begged.

Ville looked up at him and smiled then bent back down.

He must have gotten a few more words right, he screamed as writhed up into his husbands mouth before blacking out in pleasure.

~0~

Jonne giggled as Jukka winced at the pitch of Brandon's shriek.

“Well, at least we can tell Morgan he's doing well and appears happy.”


	19. A Gift of a Child

Dmitri rather badly wanted to cry, if Seppo hadn't been right there and their brother Ville he might have thrown dignity to the winds and broken down.

Verlong had decided that all three of them needed to go for fostering. Ten was a traditional age, but the three of them were only just ten and tradition said only sons could be fostered closer to their Home Holding.

Eerro had shaken his head and quietly warned all three boys to keep their heads down when the head of Holding was around. He'd shaken his head and carefully limped back to his workshop after Verlong had handed down the decree. But none of the boy's fathers had quite dared contest the order.

It was traditional. And all three boys were Gift Children, so the tradition of being fostered in the Holding of their 'father', even if everyone knew the man had no more begotten any of them that one of his ravens had, was just that much stronger.

But Dmitri was still frightened, his Gift Father had a wife and she was as fiercely protective of her husband as he was of her and his blood children. There were horrible tales of women murdering gift children their husbands had sired in fury and he really didn't want to be a child from a tale. He just wanted to work with horses like his Isa and Aiti did.

Their fathers had seen them off, put them properly on horseback and given them the traditional going away gifts of a spear, shield and good cloak. Dmitri's Isa had waited until Verlong wasn't looking and given him the stuffed raven his Aiti had made him as a baby to hide in his bag and a quick kiss on the cheek.

Even having Vlad tucked in his bag wasn't helping very much as they rode down the Old Road by the fjord toward the Holding that would be their home for at least the next three years.

It was a big place. Bigger than home was. Ville nudged his horse up closer and under the guise of teasing him took a longer look.

“They have nine longhouses. And those two look brand new.” Ville's brown eyes lit with curiosity as he looked a the layout of the Holding. Seppo just sighed and mutely rolled his eyes in a way that had Dmitri smiling a little in spite of his worry and fear.

Jukka just sighed and kept the boys moving. He hated that he'd had to drag the poor kids all the way back because Verlong was an ass. But his heart lifted when he saw Jonne running up the path to greet him.

He didn't even get his horse pulled to a halt before Jonne was at his knee chattering away like a happy magpie. Jukka slid from his horse and silenced his babbling love the best way he knew how, by kissing him half breathless.  
By the time he let Jonne up for air Uther had come up both to see how his message to Verlong had gone over and to see why there were three youngsters with his messenger.

Jukka explained quickly and Uther just sighed and nodded as more of the Holding began to gather in curiosity.  
“Mira,” Uther called and waved the slim man over when he looked up from where he was chasing his sons. Eicca and Toumas both were diverted from their games and followed looking up at the three slightly older boys as they slid down from their horses.

Dmitri was horribly grateful to Seppo as his knees would have come unstrung under him without the broader boy's shoulder under his own. Ville, of course was chattering away and learning everyone's names. But then he really looked at the man who was being given charge of them and went uncharacteristically silent in surprise.  
He had a young man's face, but an old man's hair, and his braid! It was longer than his Aiti's!

Dmitri blinked in confusion and boggled when his eyes settled on a much younger face with that same old person's hair.

But then everything was a whirl of confusion for him as he and his brothers were taken into a longhouse, given beds and firmly told to wash.

~0~

Lauri felt like he'd been kicked in the gut by an angry horse.

His Gift Children were here? All three of them? Those thoughts were closely chased by: they're ten? Already? And the sinking feeling of doom. Amie is going to kill me.

He remembered the fight they'd had when he'd told her about them. Mikko and Elise had been barely born when he'd told her and she'd come completely apart. His eyes tracked over to where his eldest son was curled up with several of the Holding's cats and that great monster of a Red Mountain hunting cat and his daughter was helping her mother cook under the watchful eyes of her ravens.

Once she'd explained how most of the girls on the island they'd stolen her from had come to be there he understood a little better.

Almost all of them were picked up off of hillsides after they'd been abandoned or had their mothers hurriedly bring them and beg the Sisters to take their baby girls so their husbands wouldn't kill them. Some came as older girls, and again they were almost universally unwanted extra daughters. Only a very lucky few were born to the sisters there and even those few often had no idea who their fathers were. It left her feeling that any man who would begat and then abandon a child was something of a monster.

And much as she loved him she couldn't abide that.

Lauri shook himself and sighed.

He was so lucky Linke and Gustav had caught her and cleared up the issue before she'd done something terrible.  
Lauri let out another low groan. Of course Uther was putting them in Mira's charge.

He'd better go find his wife so she could yell at him in private again.

~0~

Seppo was quietly relieved when other than having a few adults look them over rather carefully and having the younger children being endlessly curious they were pretty much left alone after supper to settle in. The Holding's healer had frowned a little at Dmitri's stutter, but didn't press the issue when he realized Dmitri only stuttered when he was really nervous and stopped when he calmed down a little.

The pretty blond man who had run to greet their escort had shown them where their horses were being kept with the rest of the Holding's herd and Dmitri had relaxed once he was somewhere somewhat familiar. Jonne had shown them where the brushes were kept to groom the animals and helped Dmitri relax.

Ville was being an imp, and had already been swatted at with a spoon by a very pretty woman with miles of cloth in her skirts. Only the fact that she'd been heavily pregnant had kept her from catching Ville as he scrambled to escape after filching a bit of bread. Ville had been cheerful as he shared out the loot and never realized that the only reason he'd gotten away with it was that the woman had kept her husband from catching him and putting him to hauling wood for bothering his wife.

He also had missed the amused and tolerant smiles of the other women around the central cooking area. Verlong's harried wife never put up with any mischief from them, and hadn't been known for having a generous nature before Verlong had taken her to be mother to his first wife's children.

But Seppo watched, and he began putting faces and names together. The woman Ville had filched bread from was Morgan, her husband Iason, who in turn was shield brother to Sami who was the husband of the man who'd been given their charge. Mira he'd noticed tended the Holding's children and was the man all of them went to if they'd been hurt. But they at least tried to find the Healer first. And that made him ponder what made Atti and his wife Tash different from their Holding's Healer. No one went to Old Veli unless they had to. And if they had to they made sure to bring something to ease the old man's sour temper. Mead was the best, but fresh bread and butter or a bit of smoked meat or fish would do.

Seppo also noticed that in this Holding, while everyone was busy there was also time to relax. The women all tended to have baskets of wool and spindles, and to his surprise more than a few men spun as well and he watched in shock as the Healer Atti sat on a berm outside a longhouse and naelbound a brace for another man's injured wrist. Both men talked with Atti worked and the thinner blond seemed happy enough to mind the baby sleeping by his knee, even though it was very plain he wasn't his child.

He also noticed there were a lot of ravens around. Seppo was still adjusting to the fact that there were two raven skalds in the Holding and that one was a girl younger than he was. And there were a score more ravens just lurking about for no apparent reason. He also noticed none of the boys gave her any trouble over it and wondered if it had to do with her brother having an enormous hunting cat following him around like a kitten.

There was a squeal of delighted laughter and Seppo watched as one of the adults, a man who wasn't that much taller than he was went scampering across the common area with a bigger man in hot pursuit.

“Jussi! Come back here!”

Jussi grinned and waved a handful of something that had to be a fine tunic from the color and embroidery at the larger man.

“No. You have to catch me,” then he squealed again and went scampering off when the bigger man charged him. From the rolled eyes and sighs this wasn't unusual behavior, even if it was confusing.

Seppo squeaked when Tash explained what was going on as she nudged him out of her way.

“That's Jyrki's favorite tunic. He gets a favorite and wears it to death and won't wear another until Jussi steals it. That one isn't worn so badly, but Jussi hates the color so he keeps stealing it. But it's good soft wool so he won't just destroy it.” Tash set down her gathering basket of herbs and began neatly bundling them into small bunches by type so she could hang them to dry.

“Oh.” Seppo felt his eyes go round as the bigger man, Jyrki, came stalking back, the tunic in one hand and his impish husband over his other shoulder. Jussi was squealing as Jyrki nipped at his side and Seppo boggled when he realized Jyrki's missing belt had been used to tie his husbands hands.

There were chuckles as the big man carried his smaller husband into a longhouse. There was a long moment of silence and then a shriek that made Seppo jump.

“If Jussi wrenches his shoulder out again squirming you get to put it back Husband.” Tash didn't even look up from her work, and Atti just sighed as he worked.

“Yes, Wife. I think Jyrki learned from last time though.”

Seppo wasn't sure he wanted to know.

~0~

Having his own bed was rather nice, even if it was smaller than the one he shared with his siblings at home. Having a bed alone meant he could burrow under the soft covers and hide his tears of homesickness as easily as he hid Vlad away from the teasing of older children. The battered stuffed raven never made any complaint though and just being able to whisper to the toy and cuddle it tight helped a little.

Dmitri didn't notice that one of his Gift Father's ravens had taken to hopping up and watching over his sleep.  
He was informed of that little fact the next morning at breakfast. At first Dmitri thought Ville was joking, only Seppo's quiet nod of confirmation made Dmitri go quiet in shock. But when he looked around the only black feathers he saw were the one's on Elise's ravens.

So he decided it was a fluke.

~0~

At first Ville thought the raven that would come and watch Dmitri sleep was the one that was so affectionate with his Gift Mother. Not that he dared call her that in her hearing. That particular bird was fairly affectionate with everyone and would take buttered bread and bits of meat or cheese from almost anyone in the Holding. But as Ville watched and grew more familiar with the ravens that flocked around his Gift Father and his blood children he began to think otherwise.

It wasn't always the same bird for one, it alternated between one that had a white spot on one wing and one whose head feathers stood up in a funny crest. So he kept watching and got a gentle shoulder buffet from Seppo when his brother noticed him watching.

But it didn't stop him from watching.

Even when they got assigned tasks, just like the other boys their age, Ville and Seppo tried to arrange it so that one or the other of them was around to watch Dmitri. Ville and Dmitri had been charged with the task of helping Jukka, Petri, Nikki and Juha repair the fishing weirs off the river and it was then that Ville noticed there were strange ravens lurking about as well as the usual flock.

But the strange ravens just watched, so he quickly learned to ignore them.

Dmitri had little hands, and once he'd been shown how he was very good at weaving the reeds into a mesh to help herd fish he was set similar tasks. Jukka sat down and showed him how to make proper fish and crab traps. Dmitri's Isa, Eicca had taught him how to set snares for small game and how to bring down hare and bird with a sling, so fish traps fit neatly into what he already knew.

Their Gift Father had begun making sure they knew the tales and ballads that were their history and Julian had begun teaching them how to read, both the runes that were used here at home and the Latin and Greek that were used most often on the outside.

Mira made sure they were fed, though Ville routinely would filch bits of bread to share. And they could go to any cook fire and beg a bit of food if they were hungry. That alone was a strange thing to them, but Mira told them they hauled firewood for all the cooking fires so it was reasonable to feed growing boys.

Something that here was considered reasonable was looked on back home as an inconvenience, or something to be paid for twice over at least in hard work. But if the other boys acted like begging a bit to eat from any tended fire pit was normal. And Mira's son Eicca had no reason to lie. Dmitri had seen with his own eyes how the wives and thralls would feed any child who came to their fire or pot claiming hunger. And he'd seen how Morgan would make sure to leave bread where any hungry boy could filch it and even would mock swat at them with her spoon to add spice to the game.

She'd been the one who had called for Atti when she saw how Toumas was reacting to the stings of bees. The boys had raided a hive for a bit of honey and Toumas had carried a bucket full of honeycomb back to Morgan, but his stings had kept swelling and he ended up far shorter of breath than was proper.

According to Atti if Ville hadn't scraped the stings out things could have been much worse. But because of Morgan being observant Atii was able to purge the toxins out of Toumas's blood. He'd have to be careful in the future. But according to Tash careful work allowing him to be stung and purging the toxins would gradually make him not so sensitive to the bees stings.

Dmitri had be glad that the fair haired boy would be alright, and not just because he hadn't laughed when he'd seen Vlad. He'd just picked up the stuffed raven, stroked his worn head and handed him back. When Dmitri saw him it just made him feel funny inside. But not the same sort of funny feeling he got when Seppo and Ville told him there were ravens lurking around the stables when he'd been working inside.

~0~

Lauri blinked and gave Amie a long second look, but then turned to look at where Dmitri was leading a horse out to Jukka so he could act as messenger again.

She was right, there were more ravens lurking about.

This would bear some close watching.

~0~

Dmitri blinked.

He'd just seen one of his Gift fathers other children with one of the many ravens that lurked around the Holding. He blinked and looked to find his other siblings.

Almost every one had a raven near them. Mikko had his great cat and the infant twins had a pair of the granaries mousers settling nearby with an eerie sort of watchfulness.

Then he heard the gronk and clacking of a heavy beak and flinched.

There was a raven looking at him with wise yellow eyes. It looked at him with one, then flipped his head and looked with the other.

It wasn't Ewie.

This bird had a pair of white spots, exactly where his Aiti wore her brooches to hold her apron closed.

The bird fluffed his feathers and clacked his beak again.

“I, I don't have any food for you.”

The bird made a ratcheting noise that sounded amused and hopped a bit closer.

Hesitantly Dmitri reached out to touch, not sure if this bird would allow him to stroke his fingers through his sleek black feathers.

His fingers touched feathers and automatically scratched like Ewie liked right under the wings.

There was a sigh, and the bird closed his eyes.

Dmitri smiled hesitantly and kept scratching.

When the bird opened it's eyes again, Dmitri felt like he'd slipped and cracked his skull.

Then the world slid sideways and went away.

~0~

He woke up to find Ville and Toumas watching over his sleep.

Toumas hopped to his feet and made a cryptic comment to Ville before darting off.

“I'll tell Isa and papa he awake and that his ravens have settled.”

Dmitri tried to sit up and yelped when Ville pounced him back into his bedding.

“Lay still silly.”

“But,”

“Healer said keep you still.”

There was a sort snort.

“At least one of you is trying to be sensible. But this isn't like a concussion.”

Ville backed off as Tash settled and began checking Dmitri over.

“But,” Dmitri tried very hard to not whine, but he was horribly confused. “What happened?”

There was a sharp clack of a heavy beak and an avian chuff of amusement.

Dmitri felt his eyes go huge as he turned to face the big bird even as Tash calmly informed him of the change.  
“You've been chosen by Othar's birds.”

A huge raven, with two white medallions under his wings perched on the bedstead and blinked mildly at him all the while radiating amusement.

Dmitri gulped.

“Vlad?”

The bird nodded his head and gronked before cocking his head in what was clearly an invitation.

Dmitri reached up and offered his arm.

Vlad hopped down and then hopped over to settle in beside Dmitri in the bedding, settling in very much like a cat would do, even to all but purring when Dmitri tentatively began scratching his head feathers.

He let out a little squeak when the wife of his gift father appeared with a mug of tea and a bit of bread and cheese of him.

“I'm not about to murder you silly boy. Eat. Your birds will have you hopping soon enough.”  
Dmitri blinked and obeyed. But he did sneak a bit of the cheese to Vlad.

~0~

“Well. That was rather unexpected.” Lauri rubbed his eyes and raked his hands through his disordered hair.

“Why? He is your brothers child. And you are a Raven Skald.”

Lauri grimaced at Torstigs question and observation. But Torstig wasn't finished.

“And you are his gift father. Look at how many of your begotten have ravens following them around.”

That at least was a valid point. Five of eight little ones had at least one raven following them around. The other three had cats. Amie griped about livestock, but fortunately didn't really mean for her complaints to be taken seriously.

He had no idea what to do if she ever did mean for him to take them seriously.

“Weren't you chosen about his age?”

Lauri winced. Atti had a mind like a trap, it never let go of any information that got caught in it.

“At least the two as came with him are coping. He'll do well enough I think with them as shield brothers.” Sami's comment was followed by one of his slow smiles. “And Thoumas says he's dreamed them collecting wives.”  
Lauri's head snapped up.

“When?”

Sami's smile went impish. The man must have planned his timing from dropping that tidbit.

“If what he told me is accurate I'd say five or six years from now. He describes little Seppo with the start of a good beard.”

Lauri let out a low groan.

Five years to figure out how to explain the Calling not just to his own son but to three little boys who would be verging on becoming men.

He'd already had to cope with trying to explain it to Elise when she'd had strange dreams of twin boys come to the Holding and never leaving.

His eyes strayed over to the main fires and where his wife was tending the youngest of his raiding party of little ones.

Then he groaned and flopped backwards onto the berm around the longhouse and covered his eyes with his arm.  
But he accepted the teasing of his brothers well enough.

He did have a very fine wife, healthy children and enough wealth to keep him well content.

Not quite what he'd expected when he'd helped three men with a gift of a child ten summers ago. But he'd take what the gods gave, and happily.


End file.
